Loud Snoring? No Quiet? Can’t Sleep? Sleep Apnea and Snoring Treatment Can Help! www.kuhndennst.com (910) 692-4450
1902 North Sandhills Blvd., Suite H Aberdeen, NC 28315
If you’re nred of not geeng any sleep because your partner snores loudly every night, we have a solunon. With sleep apnea and snoring treatment, we can help your partner sleep soundlessly throughout the night. This means beeer sleep for them beeer sleep for you. and b Schedule an appointment to learn more about sleep apnea and snoring treatment today! Call (910) 692-4450. Office Hours: Mon-Thurs: 7:30am-3:30PM
www.kuhndennst.com (910) 692-4450
When Selling Your Home!
McDevitt town & country properties
Our Communities Feel Different Because They Are NATIONALLY ACCREDITED LIFE PLAN COMMUNITIES Independent Living | Assisted Living | Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation | Home Care
Independent Living at Pine Knoll
Independent Living at Belle Meade
With a variety and choice of comfortable residences with convenience to attractive and purposeful senior living amenities, Pine Knoll offers history and comfort.
Surrounded by lush greenery, Belle Meade is a gated, resort-style community that offers a wide variety of senior living options, including spacious homes and lavish apartments.
Call today to schedule your visit! For more information, call 910-246-1023 or visit www.sjp.org.
Southern Pines
BROWSE INVENTORY I GET PRE-APPROVED I COMPLETE PAPERWORK
CURBSIDE PICK-UP & DELIVERY OF YOUR NEW CAR!
More Than 600 Low Finance Rates New & Used Available! Vehicles!
Do Everything From The Comfort Of Your Home!
910-684-4028 PinehurstToyota.com
10760 Hwy 15-501, Southern Pines, NC 28388
September ���� FEATURES 67 In Tune with the Pandemic Poetry By Stephen E. Smith
68 Architect of the Sandhills By Bill Case
New Yorker Aymar Embury designed the Sandhills’ most iconic buildings
76 Harmony with Nature By Claudia Watson In the fast lane at Slow Farm
80 Memories of a Devoted Mother Story and Photographs by Todd Pusser Reminiscing about fox squirrels
86 Rosewood in Bloom By Deborah Salomon Gatsby-era retreat honors the old, celebrates the new
95 Almanac
By Ashley Wahl
DEPARTMENTS 17 24 27 31 33 37 41 43 47 51 55 57 59 63 106 111 112
Simple Life By Jim Dodson PinePitch Instagram Contest Good Natured By Karen Frye The Omnivorous Reader By Stephen E. Smith Bookshelf Hometown By Bill Fields The Kitchen Gardener By Jan Leitschuh In the Spirit By Tony Cross Home by Design By Cynthia Adams Out of the Blue By Deborah Salomon Birdwatch By Susan Campbell Sporting Life By Tom Bryant Golftown Journal By Lee Pace Arts & Entertainment Calendar PineNeedler By Mart Dickerson Southwords By Susan S. Kelly
Cover photograph by John Gessner Photograph this page by Todd Pusser 6
PineStraw
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
For over 90 years, DUX has blended sleep science with world-class craftsmanship to deliver one of the most advanced beds available. DUX, headquartered in Sweden, is committed to improving life through better sleep, combining research, the finest materials and the most experienced craftsmen, to ultimately provide a more healthful sleep. Resolve to invest in your health. Visit a DUXIANAÂŽ store near you to discover the difference The DUX Bed can make in your life.
Opulence of Southern Pines and DUXIANA at The Mews, 280 NW Broad Street, Downtown Southern Pines, NC 910.692.2744
at Cameron Village, 400 Daniels Street, Raleigh, NC 919.467.1781
at Sawgrass Village, 310 Front Street Suite 815 Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32082 904.834.7280
www.OpulenceOfSouthernPines.com Serving the Carolinas & More for Over 20 Years – Financing Available
Talent, Technology & Teamwork! Moore County’s Most Trusted Real Estate Team! LD
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PINEHURST • $332,500
SEVEN LAKES WEST • $328,000
SEVEN LAKES WEST • $426,000
130 TAMARISK LANE Lovely 3 BR / 3.5 BA home in desirable neighborhood close to the Village and to Pinehurst CC – very private location! Exterior is hardiplank and stacked stone offers lots of curb appeal…..a must see!
102 JOSEPHS POINT Beautifully maintained 3 BR / 3 BA home on large corner lot! Home offers bright and open layout in great location. Master bedroom has lots of windows overlooking beautiful water views!
106 BROWN COURT Splendid 4 BR / 3.5 BA custom home in gorgeous location! Meticulously maintained w/spacious layout and tons of curb appeal.
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SEVEN LAKES WEST • $425,000
PINEHURST • $434,500
SEVEN LAKES WEST • $259,000
105 COOK POINT Located on a point w/wide water views in every direction, this lovely property has lots of water frontage - build the perfect l akefront home and love life
335 DORAL DRIVE Lovely golf front 3 BR / 3.5 BA home on 4th hole of Pinehurst course #1. Home has unique floorplan and has been beautifully renovated w/new kitchen w/private sitting area as well and new master bath.
139 JAMES DRIVE Gorgeous prime waterfront lot on Lake Auman offers long lake views. Perfect buildable lot for year round lake life.
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SEVEN LAKES WEST • $169,000
SEVEN LAKES WEST • $325,000
890 ST. ANDREWS DRIVE Immaculate 3 BR / 2 BA home located near the Village of Pinehurst. Enjoy morning coffee while watching golfers on the 2nd hole of Pinehurst # 5.
137 CALLIS CIRCLE Great buildable lot in desirable Seven Lakes West. 3/4 acre lot already cleared and bulkhead in place.
123 MORRIS DRIVE Beautiful 4 BR / 3 BA Bolton built home well maintained inside and out. Home offers gorgeous layout w/tons of curb appeal.
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Luxury Properties Moore County’s Most Trusted Real Estate Team!
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PINEHURST • $795,000
PINEHURST • $565,000
PINEHURST • $529,000
26 OXTON CIRCLE Appealing 4 BR / 3.5 BA home in great location w/ spacious layout, gorgeous with views of golf and water. Tons of appeal inside and out.
51 STONEYKIRK DRIVE Stunning custom 5 BR / 3.5 BA brick home in beautiful Pinewild CC. Home offers exquisite finishes and detail throughout w/spacious layout and gorgeous kitchen.
13 HALKIRK DRIVE Nicely maintained 4 BR / 4.5 BA brick home in Pinewild community. Home offers nice layout w/ beautiful hardwood flooring throughout.
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SEVEN LAKES WEST • $538,800
115 REYNWOOD COURT Stunning custom built 4 BR / 4.5 BA modern farmhouse situated on almost 6 acres. Home offers spectacular layout where each bedroom has it’s own bathroom!
106 SUNSET POINT Amazing 3 BR / 3.5 BA custom brick and stone stunner. Home offers beautiful layout and is movein ready and is truly a rare find on Lake Auman.
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MCLENDON HILLS • $650,000 310 BROKEN RIDGE TRAIL Exquisite 4 BR / 3 full BA 3 half BA brick home located on over 3 acres w/spacious layout. Along with the home there is a barn and beautiful rolling pastures.
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SOUTHERN PINES • $540,000
PINEHURST • $525,000
PINEHURST • $610,000
1 AUGUSTA DRIVE Stunning 3 BR / 2.5 BA custom home in popular Mid South Club. Interior is open w/beautiful oak flooring and nice upgrades throughout.
5 AUGUSTA WAY Attractive 4 BR / 3 BA brick custom home located in Pinehurst Donald Ross area. Home has a beautiful layout and is within walking distance to historic Village of Pinehurst.
20 CRAIG ROAD Alluring 4 BR / 4.5 BA in beautiful Old Town location. Home has bright, open floorplan, gourmet kitchen and tons of curb appeal.
Re/Max Prime Properties, 5 Chinquapin Rd., Pinehurst, NC 910-295-7100 • 800-214-9007 • Re/Max Prime Properties 5 Chinquapin Rd., Pinehurst, NC
www.ThEGENTRYTEAM.COM
• 910-295-7100
Private Woodland retreat
M A G A Z I N E Volume 16, No. 9 David Woronoff, Publisher Jim Dodson, Editor
910.693.2506 • jim@pinestrawmag.com
Andie Stuart Rose, Creative Director
910.693.2467 • andie@pinestrawmag.com
Jim Moriarty, Senior Editor
910.692.7915 • jjmpinestraw@gmail.com
Alyssa Rocherolle, Graphic Designer
910.693.2508 • alyssa@pinestrawmag.com
Lauren M. Coffey, Graphic Designer
910.693.2469 • lauren@pinestrawmag.com CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Deborah Salomon, Staff Writer Mary Novitsky, Sara King, Proofreaders CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
John Gessner, Laura Gingerich, Tim Sayer
5 Merion Place • CCNC • Pinehurst The woodland setting for this rambling, fun-filled home offers privacy, plenty of lawn for play and woods with trails for walking from this beautiful 5 acre lot. A 2007 total renovation created a 5500 sq ft home with two separate living areas, each fireplace centered, with lofty ceilings, hardwood floors, built in bookcases and loads of charm. The downstairs master is balanced by a large, other downstairs bedroom or workout room. The formal dining and living rooms are functioning perfectly as his and her offices. The spacious family room houses the kitchen, pantry, a back stairway, generous dining space, and living room with stacked stone fireplace flanked by French doors to a covered back porch. 4 BR, 4.2 BA, full guest apt above the 3 car garage, and bonus play space in main house as well. New Listing, New Price $899,000 To view more photos, take a virtual tour or schedule a showing, go to:
Maureen Clark
www.clarkpropertiesnc.com
when experience matters
Pinehurst • Southern Pines BHHS Pinehurst Realty Group • 910.315.1080 ©2015 BHH Affiliates, LLC. An independently operated subsidiary of HomeServices of American, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate, and a franchisee of BHH Affiliates, LLC.
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CONTRIBUTORS Tom Allen, Jenna Biter, Harry Blair, Tom Bryant, Susan Campbell, Bill Case, Wiley Cash, Tony Cross, Brianna Rolfe Cunningham, Mart Dickerson, Bill Fields, Laurel Holden, Jan Leitschuh, Meridith Martens, D.G. Martin, Lee Pace, Todd Pusser, Joyce Reehling, Scott Sheffield, Stephen E. Smith, Angie Tally, Kimberly Taws, Ashley Wahl, Claudia Watson, Renee Whitmore ADVERTISING SALES
Ginny Trigg, Advertising Director 910.693.2481 • ginny@thepilot.com Jennie Acklin, 910.693.2515 Samantha Cunningham, 910.693.2505 Terry Hartsell, 910.693.2513 Erika Leap, 910.693.2514 ADVERTISING COORDINATOR
Emily Jolly • pilotads@thepilot.com
ADVERTISING GRAPHIC DESIGN
Mechelle Butler, Scott Yancey
PS Steve Anderson, Finance Director 910.693.2497 Darlene Stark, Circulation Director 910.693.2488 SUBSCRIPTIONS
910.693.2488 OWNERS
Jack Andrews, Frank Daniels Jr., Frank Daniels III, Lee Dirks, David Woronoff 145 W. Pennsylvania Avenue, Southern Pines, NC 28387 www.pinestrawmag.com
©Copyright 2020. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. PineStraw magazine is published by The Pilot LLC
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
140 North Valley • Southern Pines
Loblolly, a Southern Pines historic treasure, located on a quiet, tree-lined street, is a lovely combination of unparalleled building elegance embraced by comfortable living features. 5BR, 5BA, 8,050 sf. Offered at $1,490,000
123 Pinefield Court • Southern Pines Built in 2006, this 6580 sq ft residence on 8 acres includes 5 BR, 6.5 BA, theater room, billiard room, open living plan, wine cellar, 3 car garage and outdoor kitchen. Gated privacy. Offered at $1,900,000
770 Yadkin Road • Southern Pines
The perfect farm on 10 acres, short hack from the Foundation. Offering: huntbox (2008) 5-stall barn, 2 BR and Residence (2011) 3 BR, 4610 sq ft, pool. $1,875,000.
451 Old Mail Road • Southern Pines The jewel of Moore County’s horse country, Fox Hollow Farm is secluded on 10.52 acres with easy access to thousands of acres of equestrian land. 4BR, 4.5BA, 5,276 sq ft. Offered at $2,200,000.
Maureen Clark
910.315.1080 • www.clarkproperties.com
40 Orange Road • Old Town • Pinehurst Exquisite 1922 cottage, lovingly restored, located on a quiet street near the Village. Highlights include: 4 bedrooms (one downstairs), 3.5 baths, paneled dining room, fenced yard with fireplace. $1,200,000.
SOLD
100 Lake Dornoch • CCNC • Pinehurst The stunning contemporary home, poised over the 17th hole of the Dogwood Course, is characterized by rooms with a view. 4BR, 5BA, 2HB, 4570 sf. Offered at $775,000
40 Village Green East • Old Town • Pinehurst Historic Whispering Pines Cottage, 1915, was totally restored and expanded 20072012. Main floor master, 3 fireplaces, gourmet kitchen, brilliant landscaping. 4 BR, 3.5 BA, 5754 sq ft, .69 acres. Offered at $1,640,000.
SOLD
155 SW Lake Forest Drive • Pinehurst Everything you can imagine in lakeside living is offered in this deceptively generous Lake Pinehurst home. 4BR, 4.5BA, 4,497 sf. Offered at $938,000.
Berkshire Hathaway HomeSercies and the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices symbol are registered service marks of HomeServices of America, Inc.® Equal Housing Opportunity.Housing Opportunity.
Always a Step Ahead
Introducing Introducingaabrand brandnew newCaviness Caviness a brand new Caviness Land development in NC. LandIntroducing development inAberdeen, Aberdeen, NC. Land development in Aberdeen, NC.
Pre-Selling Pre-SellingNow! Now!
Pre-Selling Now! Winds Way Farm Way Farm Winds Way Farm Set among among beautifully manicured Set manicured grounds groundswith withaaspectacular spectacularwooded wooded
Set among grounds with a spectacular wooded backdrop. Eachbeautifully upon lots access totoan backdrop. Each home is setmanicured upon ½ ½ acres acres lotswith with access animmaculately immaculately backdrop. Each home isopen-air set uponcovered ½ acresBBQ lotsarea. with access to an plans immaculately presented are presented pool and open-air coveredBBQ area.Open Openfloor floorplans are presented pool and open-air covered BBQ area. Open floor plans are generously proportioned and generously and flow flow effortlessly effortlesslythroughout throughoutfrom fromthe theliving living generously proportioned and flow effortlessly throughout from the living room through enjoy the stunning room covered patio where you can enjoy the stunning roomthrough throughtotoyour yourprivate privatecovered coveredpatio patiowhere whereyou youcan can enjoy the stunning views. Gourmet with double oven and soft-touch cabinetry are just a aa views. Gourmet kitchens double oven and soft-touch cabinetry are just views. Gourmet kitchens with double oven and soft-touch cabinetry are just couple ofofupgraded upgraded these homes. These couple that come asasstandard standard with these homes. These coupleof upgradedfeatures featuresthat thatcome comeas standardwith with these homes. These brand new and brand all the elements for relaxing, comfortable, and brandnew newhomes homesprovide provideall allthe theelements elementsfor forrelaxing, relaxing,comfortable, comfortable, and easy-care discover aanew way ofof life. easy-care living. living.See Seeour ourfloorplans floor plansand and discover anew new way of life. easy-care our floorplans and discover way life.
Serving Moore County and Surrounding Areas! 910.684.8674 | 120 N ASHE ST | SOUTHERN PINES, NC 28387
www.maisonteam.com
MLS 201175 113 NEWINGTON WAY Aberdeen, NC • $270,000
MLS 201617 171 ENFIELD DRIVE Aberdeen, NC • $299,500
MLS 201619 176 ENFIELD DRIVE Aberdeen, NC • $315,900
MLS 201653 180 BROADMEADE DRIVE Aberdeen, NC • $300,000
MLS 201620 184 ENFIELD DRIVE Aberdeen, NC • $293,500
MLS 201622 188 ENFIELD DRIVE Aberdeen, NC • $311,500
MLS 201623 195 ENFIELD DRIVE Aberdeen, NC • $336,500
MLS 199892 437 PALISADES DRIVE Aberdeen, NC • $312,500
MLS 199863 443 PALISADES DRIVE Aberdeen, NC • $307,000
MLS 199829 575 FOOTHILLS STREET Aberdeen, NC • $250,000
MLS 199660 587 FOOTHILLS STREET Aberdeen, NC • $284,900
MLS 199419 707 WINDS WAY Aberdeen, NC • $322,000
MLS 199421 711 WINDS WAY Aberdeen, NC • $324,000
MLS 199420 712 WINDS WAY Aberdeen, NC • $322,500
MLS 199422 716 WINDS WAY Aberdeen, NC • $313,500
MLS 199474 938 WINDS WAY Aberdeen, NC • $322,500
Buy, Sell or Rent through us - we do it all! 910.684.8674 | 120 N ASHE ST | SOUTHERN PINES, NC 28387
BPAC
BR ADSHAW PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
LIVE! On the McNeill-Woodward Green October 24
T IC K E T & SHOW I N FO AT S A N DH I L L SBPAC .COM/E V E N T S
10 Village Green Road, Pinehurst $2,989,999 5 bed / 4/2 bath Pamela O’Hara 910-315-3093 Emily Hewson 910-315-3324
3 bed / 3 bath Kay Beran 910-315-3322
5 bed / 4.5 bath Cathy Breeden 910-639-0433
B H HS PRG .CO M
MLS 182223
Stunning contemporary on Pinehurst #2 — open interior and spectacular views.
MLS 200399
Beautiful custom new construction located in the gated golf community Pinewild Country Club. All-brick home built by a quality builder with a great deal of custom details.
11 Oxton Circle, Pinehurst $899,000 4 bed / 6.5 bath Patricia Wright 910-691-3224 Kay Beran 910-315-3322
3 New Day Way, Whispering Pines 5 bed / 3.5 bath Cathy Breeden 910-639-0433
Five bedroom, three-anda-half bathroom home on .56 acre lot. Open floorplan with main floor living. Super location with close proximity to Ft Bragg and shopping.
MLS 200856
Gorgeous French Country home in Pinewild Country Club. Over 6,000 sq ft on lovely grounds. MLS 195762
Pamela O’Hara 910-315-3093
The chance of a lifetime to own a special property. 16.74 prime acres with four houses only minutes to Pinehurst Village. R-210 allows many uses from horse farm to golf course.
$549,000 4 bed / 5 bath Debbie Darby 910-783-5193
1220 Aiken Road, Vass $825,000 3 bed / 3 bath Pamela O’Hara 910-315-3093
Golf front, all-brick home in Pinewild. Fireplaces in master, kitchen, and family room. Hardwoods, soaring ceilings, covered patio and screened balcony off master.
24 Cumnock Court, Pinehurst $490,000 3 bed / 2.5 bath Marie O’Brien 910-528-5669
MLS 201473
95 Forest Lane, Pinehurst $329,000 3 bed / 2 bath Debbie Darby 910-783-5193
“Monreve Farm” — Beautiful equestrian property adjacent to the Walthour-Moss Foundation. Eight-stall Morton barn, two run-in sheds, 10 paddocks, and a riding ring.
MLS 198891
59 Devon Drive, Pinehurst
MLS 200509
$410,000
4 bed / 4 bath
MLS 192774
31 Abbottsford Drive, Pinehurst $749,000
$2,250,000
Original schoolhouse on 1 st fairway of #2 golf course. Totally renovated. Enclave blends tradition with luxury amenities. Garage apartment.
15 Inverrary Court, Fairwoods on 7 $925,000
2310 Midland Road, Pinehurst
One level living with split floor plan, carolina room, deck, and fenced yard. Updated kichen with new appliances. Hardwood flooring throughout! New vapor barrier in crawl space.
MLS 200594
Great golf front home in Pinewild Country Club! Large country kitchen, formal dining room, great room, beautiful hardwood floors, storage galore and 2 car garage.
MLS 198849
4 Drayton Court, Southern Pines $295,000 2 bed / 2 bath Bill Brock 910-639-1148
Great two bedroom, two bathroom unit in Middleton Place. Fully equipped kitchen with pantry, two fireplaces, 9 foot ceilings throughout. Beautiful courtyard.
MLS 201416
Pinehurst Office • 42 Chinquapin Road, Pinehurst, NC 28374 • 910 -295 -5504 | Southern Pines Office • 167 Beverly Lane, Southern Pines, NC 28387 • 910-692-2635 ©2020 BHH Affiliates, LLC. An independently operated subsidiary of HomeServices of America, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate, and a franchisee of BHH Affiliates, LLC.
I
n early March, we began implementing innovative ways to provide care, services, and amenities to all those that live and work within our community. Since then, every department has risen to the occasion, finding solutions for residents to communicate with loved ones, keeping the spirit of love and family flowing, and meeting the material needs of all while working to protect the health and well-being of residents and staff alike. Here, a few Independant Living residents share their stories.
“Life is good here at Penick Village thanks to our friendly and competent employee team members. They leave the safety of their own homes seven days each week to be with us. We love them all.” Andrea & Dick M.
Our Our OurLife Life LifePlan Plan PlanCommunity Community Community has has hasserved served servedolder older olderadults adults adultssince since since1964, 1964, 1964, providing providing providingexceptional exceptional exceptionalIndependent Independent Independent Living, Living, Living, Our Life Plan Community has served adults since 1964, Home Home HomeCare, Care, Care,Assisted Assisted Assisted Living Living Living &older &&Plan Skilled Skilled Skilled Nursing. Nursing. Nursing. Our Our Our Our Our Life Life Life Life Life Life Plan Plan Plan Plan Plan Community Community Community Community Community Community providing exceptional Independent Living, has has has has has has has served served served served served served served served older older older older older older adults adults adults adults adults adults since since since since since since 1964, 1964, 1964, 1964, numerous changes to ensure the 1964, safety “Since the pandemic, there have been of residents and staff. Our meals and
providing providing providing providing providing providing providing exceptional exceptional exceptional exceptional exceptional exceptional exceptional exceptional Independent Independent Independent Independent Independent Independent Independent Independent Living, Living, Living, Living, Living, Home Care, Assisted Living Skilled Nursing. mail, forIndependent example, are delivered to Our Our Life Life& Plan Plan Community Community “We moved into Penick Village on April 30, 2020 at a time of national, state, and Penick Village us daily. restrictions. It presented many more challenges than we could have expected when we made has has has served served served& older older adults adultsNursing. since since 1964, 1964, Home Home Home Home Home Home Home Care, Care, Care, Care, Care, Care, Care, Assisted Assisted Assisted Assisted Assisted Assisted Assisted Assisted Living Living Living Living Living & & & & &Skilled Skilled Skilled Skilled Skilled Skilled Skilled Skilled Skilled Nursing. Nursing. Nursing. Nursing. Nursing. the decision to move to Penick Village last January. However, we both appreciate the confidence Everyone I have talked with agrees that that Penick’s safety measures provide. Our cottage was completely renovated, and despite theproviding providing providingexceptional exceptional exceptional Independent Independent IndependentLiving, Living, we live in the most perfect place possible, difficulties of adhering to safety guidelines, was completed close to the projected schedule … We Home Home Home Care, Care,Assisted Assisted Assisted Living Living & & Skilled Skilled Skilled Nursing. Nursing. where there is a plan to meet our needs. were lucky to have moved into a cul-de-sac with fun and friendly neighbors. Great friends on Care, I am thankful to be a part of the Penick the “outside” drop things off at the gate which dedicated, hard-working employees deliver to our Village family.” front door.” Paula & Chuck B.
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Joyce W.
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Our Life Plan Community Our Our OurLife Life Life Plan Plan PlanCommunity Community Community
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Enjoy Enjoy Enjoyvibrant vibrant vibrantliving living livingwith with withdelicious delicious delicious cuisine, cuisine, cuisine,personable personable personableservices, services, services,and and and enriching enriching enrichingopportunities opportunities opportunities &&amenities amenities amenities And the art of & rolling with the punches Episcopal Church summer camp B J D that that that allow allow allowyou you youtototogrow grow growolder older olderbetter. better. better.oldoutside Camden, Maine, where she SIMPLE LIFE
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cuisine,If anybody personable andhand, it’s probably can handle itservices, wisely, on the other Maggie and Nate. Both are experienced travelers and savvy outdoor adventurers who’ve seen just about everything from the urban jungle to enriching opportunities & amenities Enjoy Enjoy Enjoy Enjoy Enjoy Enjoy vibrant vibrant vibrant vibrant vibrant vibrant vibrant vibrant living living living living living living living living with with with with with with with delicious delicious delicious delicious delicious delicious delicious the wilds of Maine. During the first few days of their residency in the hills east of thatcuisine, allow you to grow better. cuisine, cuisine, cuisine, cuisine, cuisine, cuisine, cuisine, personable personable personable personable personable personable personable personable services, services, services, services, services, services, services, and and and and and and downtown LA, in fact, Mugsolder (as I call her) sent me a photograph ofand a large rattlesnake. It was casually crossing the footpath of the nature
and her younger brother spent many happy summer weeks as kids. They’d rented the entire camp and we were planning to decorate its cabins for guests to stay in rustic splendor as an option to local pricey inns. Two families were looking forward to several days of feasting on local seafood, songs around the campfire and watersports by day, with yours truly all set to don a camp sweatshirt and whistle to serve as de facto camp director, my first summer camp gig since scouting days. Instead, wisely, they postponed the blessed event until the same third weekend in September one year from now. The date stays the same because September in the North Country is exquisite, probably “as good as life and weather get,” as my sweet former Maine neighbor lady used to declare every year around Labor Day. During the two decades we resided there, in fact, I fondly came to think of September as the glorious “End of Luggage Rack Season” because as the weather cools and leaves turn, the summer tourists suddenly pack up and head for home — a brief respite before bus loads of elderly “leaf-peepers” begin to roll into the Pine Tree State for their annual October invasion. However brief, the sense of relief is palpable and the gift to residents is twofold. Summer’s end means local merchants’ pockets are full of wampum, and locals can safely venture into town to see old friends or visit uncrowded restaurants where the cost of a decent shore supper sometimes drops by a third. Back on our forested hilltop west of town, meanwhile, surrounded by 600 acres of birch, beech and hemlock, I always found September days to be among the most peaceful and productive of the year. These were times when I was at my writing desk by dawn’s early light and spent my afternoons mowing grass or tending to my late garden or finishing up my woodpile for winter. I never missed a chance to pause and marvel at September’s golden afternoon light and the telltale scents of summer’s end. Sometimes, if I sat long and still enough on the bench of my “Philosopher’s Garden” at the edge of the forest, a small procession of local residents would appear, including a trio of wild turkeys and a stunning pheasant, a large lady porcupine and a family of whitetail deer. Once, unexpectedly, a large iridescent green dragonfly landed on the back of my hand as I sat on the bench, a creature from Celtic myth, allowing me to examine him — or her — up close and personal. I remember asking this divine creature where it might be headed but got no answer. After a while, on a puff of early evening wind, like summer itself, it flew away. It’ll be 20 years next September since my wife and I sealed our own summer wedding vows by holding our reception the same third weekend of September that Maggie and Nate scheduled for their wedding this year. Maine-loving minds must think alike.
enriching enriching enriching enriching enriching enriching enriching enriching enriching opportunities opportunities opportunities opportunities opportunities opportunities opportunities & && & & amenities & amenities & amenities amenities amenities amenities amenities amenities preserve near opportunities their house, where she was taking an afternoon hike with a friend and her dogs. Being a gal who grew up in the woods of Maine, sheallow didn’t seem particularly rattled by the encounter, asbetter. itbetter. were — just that that that that that that allow allow allow allow allow allow allow you you you you you you you to to to to to to to grow to grow grow grow grow grow grow grow older older older older older older older better. better. better. better. better. better. Join us.
respectful. “It kind of freaked the dogs but we were on the snake’s turf, after all. We just let him pass.” Enjoy Enjoyvibrant vibrant vibrant living living with with delicious delicious A few daysliving later, shewith phoned todelicious let her old man know she and Nate had awakened to a gently shaking house. “Our first earthquake,” she cuisine, cuisine, cuisine, personable personable personable services, services, services, and pronounced with a nervous little laugh.and Atand week’s end, she phoned again to let me know they’d already put together an “earthquake emerenriching enriching enrichingopportunities opportunities opportunities && & amenities amenities amenities gency kit in case the Big One everybody predicts may happen soon.” that thatallow allow allow you you you toto to grow grow grow older older older better. better. better. Once again, she didn’t sound particularly vexed, merely bracing for whatever the world might throw at them — and us — next. During a year in which a runaway killer virus has delayed, cancelled, locked down or put on hold every aspect of “normal” American life — whatever shred of meaning that phrase still holds — I’m impressed with my daughter’s coolness under fire, an ability to keep calm and carry on as British citizens were famously advised to do on posters in 1939 as their world dissolved into World War. Factor in 2020’s long overdue racial awakening, massive social protests in the streets, a collapsed economy and a presidential election that is shaping up to challenge the very foundations of our representative democracy and you have a formula for — well, who can really say? A friend I bumped into at the grocery store recently told me her daughter was depressed because her wedding has been canceled due to the virus. Somewhere I later read that almost half of the scheduled weddings for 2020 have either been postponed, rescheduled or simply canceled. “It’s as if tomorrow has been put on hold until further notice,” lamented my friend. “God only knows what the future holds.” It visibly perked her up a bit, however, when I casually mentioned that my own daughter’s wedding was in the same boat, a victim of these unexpected times — either proof that we’re all in this hot mess together or misery loves company, take your pick. Mugs and Nate were to be married later this month at the lovely
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SIMPLE LIFE
Wendy and I calculated that late September — the autumnal equinox — would be the ideal time to invite far-flung friends and family from Carolina to California to come to Maine and help us finish our vows and kick up their heels beneath a full hunter’s moon. We hired a wonderful Irish string band and our friend Paul to put on one of his spectacular lobster bakes for an unforgettable evening on the lawn. But something unforgettable and unexpected happened that September. Ten days before the party, as I was buying chrysanthemums at my favorite nursery on Harpswell Road on a perfect September morning, chatting with the owner as she rang up my purchases, her face suddenly went pale. I asked what was wrong. She simply pointed to the small TV playing on the wall behind me. It was 8:50 in the morning and smoke was billowing from the side of the North Tower of Manhattan’s World Trade Center. “A plane just flew into the top of that building,” was all she could manage. I stood watching with other shoppers for a few minutes then drove home wondering how such a horrible thing could possibly have happened. Ten minutes later, after I unloaded the flowers and went inside to turn on the TV, I got my answer, tuning in seconds before a second airplane flew straight into the South Tower of the Trade Center. You know the rest of this story, the single deadliest terror attack in human history that claimed more than 3,000 lives and changed so much about this country. Like Maggie and Nate, within a day, Wendy and I decided to postpone our wedding celebration for a year. We cancelled the Irish
band and the lobster bake and phoned more than 100 friends to break the news. They understood completely. Not unlike this summer of Covid-19, travel was severely restricted and most Americans simply wished to stay glued to their TV sets in the wake of 9/11’s unspeakable horrors. Something else unexpected happened, though. After days of numbing news-watching, our phones began to ring with friends near and far wondering if they could still come to Maine for a visit. The phones kept ringing, the list kept growing. The reception was suddenly back on — and evidently needed by all. In the end, nearly 150 souls unexpectedly showed up that September night to share our vows in a circle of hands, to dance in the moonlight, eat steamed lobster and vanish every crumb of Dame Wendy’s amazing wedding cake (which, for the record, the groom never even got a taste of). At a moment when we needed it most, we were all there for each other, to laugh, cry, dance and simply be circled in love. It was an unforgettable night after all. “Most people want to be circled by safety, not by the unexpected,” authors Ron Hall and Denver Moore write in Same Kind of Different as Me, the moving 2006 bestseller about an unlikely friendship between a wealthy international art dealer and an angry Fort Worth homeless man that transformed both their lives. “The unexpected can take you out,” they note. “But the unexpected can also take you over and change your life. Put a heart in your body where a stone used to be.” That’s my wish for all of us this unexpected September, by the way — to find a heart where a stone used to be. PS Contact Editor Jim Dodson at jim@thepilot.com.
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315 N BEULAH HILL ROAD • OLD TOWN Elegant, historic, formal, “Cotton Cottage”. Restored Historic home with large Master Suite, indoor pool and elevator. New 3 bay garage. 6BD, 5 ½ BA. Offered at $1,250,000.
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TRUST BUT VERIFY: As our communities deal with the challenges presented by the novel coronavirus, please be aware that events may have been postponed, rescheduled or existed only in our dreams. Check before attending.
Beautiful Places, Beautiful Faces The Sandhills Photography Club and the Artists League of the Sandhills will hold an opening reception on Friday, Sept. 4, from 5 to 7 p.m. for its show “Travels Near and Far.” The exhibit will be on display through Sept. 24 at the Artists League of the Sandhills, 129 Exchange St., Aberdeen. For more information call (910) 944-3979 or go to www.artistleague.org.
Feasting on Weymouth Reserve a Farm to Table boxed dinner created by Ashten’s Restaurant at the Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities on Wednesday, Sept. 16, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. The dinner includes grilled chicken, grilled peaches, two side salads and corn bread. Picnic on the grounds or take it to go. The meal is $20 for Weymouth members and $30 for non-members. To reserve your dinner call (910) 6926261, go to www.weymouthcenter.org or book through www.ticketmesandhills.com.
The Virtual Jenna Join Today Show co-anchor Jenna Bush Hager, the daughter of George W. and Laura Bush, and acclaimed historian Jon Meacham at a book signing for Hager’s new book, Everything Beautiful in Its Time, sharing the moving stories of her beloved grandparents, George H.W. and Barbara Bush. The virtual event takes place at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, September 9. For information go to ticketmesandhills.com.
Live Music on the Green On Friday, Sept. 11, from 7 to 8:30 p.m., Darin and Brooke Aldridge will be appearing on the Bradshaw Performing Arts Center’s McNeill-Woodward Green at Sandhills Community College, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Masks and social distancing rules are in effect for this outdoor concert. Then, on Saturday, Sept. 26, The Contenders will be live on the green from 7:30 to 10 p.m. For information and tickets to either concert — or both — go to www.ticketmesandhills.com.
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––––––––– as seen on –––––––––
25 Years and Counting Stop by the Southern Pines Public Library on Thursday, Sept. 10, to help celebrate its 25th Dedication Day. The first 50 visitors can enter a raffle to win a book-themed basket of delectable stuff and pick up a cupcake for the road. For more information call (910) 692-8235 or visit www.sppl.net.
Reflections of a Lifetime In her just released book, South Toward Home: Tales of an Unlikely Journey, former Pinehurst resident Alice Joyner Irby leads you through decades of crises and joys, harsh realities and great kindnesses. Comprised of 26 separate stories combining intimate personal portraits with a pragmatic view of the world around her, Irby’s book describes her childhood in Weldon, North Carolina; the glass ceiling confronting women in the workplace; the creation of the Job Corps as part of Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty; the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s; and much more. It’s available at The Country Bookshop, through the Outer Banks Publishing Group or on Amazon.
Vote! National Voter Registration Day is Tuesday, Sept. 22. If you have yet to register, stop by the Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines to pick up a voter registration form.
Local Woman Imports Tropical Plants for a Living No one taught Elizabeth Hadley how to love plants. Like the dozens of tropical babies in her greenhouse in Whispering Pines, her love grew from years trial and error, research and TLC. In February 2020, Elizabeth started her tropical plant import business, Whispering Vines. Whispering Vines brings in greenery from places like Thailand and Indonesia to clients across the state. Elizabeth communicates with plant vendors overseas to obtain rare, tropical plants for nurseries and even reptile vivariums across the state. Elizabeth’s collection consists of everything from aroids like monsteras and philodendrons to rare orchids, palms and African/southeast Asian flowering trees. “When it comes to plants, it’s a matter of networking and doing a ton of research,” Elizabeth said. “I’ve focused on developing long term relationships with suppliers overseas, so I can have access to a wider range of plants and the rarer plants.” When Elizabeth receives an order, she coordinates with the buyer to have them pick up at her greenhouse or she will take them herself. In the future, Elizabeth hopes to extend her import business to the interior landscaping market. Just as interior designers provide insight in room design, Elizabeth would provide clients with ways to use plants to enhance a space. “Aesthetically speaking, you have lots of structural elements to plants,” Elizabeth said. “Some are vase shaped. Some are more wild. I feel like plants can add such an incredible aesthetic effect to a room — instead of pieces of furniture that serve no purpose.” To learn more about Whispering Vines, follow them on Facebook and Instagram. Thinking about getting in the plant game? This local Facebook group serves as a friendly online community for plant lovers across Moore County.
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E A R LY S TA G E P R O S TAT E C A N C E R O F T E N H A S N O S Y M P T O M S .
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INSTAGRAM WINNERS
Congratulations to our September Instagram winners!
Theme:
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Next month’s theme:
“Back to (Virtual) School” The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
To submit your photo on Instagram you need to post a photo, tag us @pinestrawmag and in the caption field add the hashtag #pinestrawcontest (Submissions needed by Wednesday, September 16th) PineStraw
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Now more than ever, residents at Quail Haven recognize and appreciate the true meaning of COMMUNITY. With concierge services such as meal delivery, grocery pickup and technology support, residents continue to live their best lives. Socially-distanced wellness and life-enrichment opportunities connect residents to each other, and the myriad of support and healthcare services onsite, allow residents to live more and worry less.
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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Rembrandt THE SIGN AND THE LIGHT ETCHINGS
“Self-Portrait with Saskia,” 1636, etching by Rembrandt Photo courtesy of The Art Company
September 11 - November 18, 2020 Underwritten by a grant from an Anonymous Fund of the Cumberland Community Foundation, Inc.
Organized by The Art Company Pesaro, Italy The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Scan for safety guidelines or visit DavidMcCuneGallery.org PineStraw
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G O O D NAT U R E D
The Big Little Mineral Lithium could power your life
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By K aren Frye
Usually when we think of minerals, we
think of calcium, magnesium, zinc and so on. But there’s a trace mineral, lithium, that could possibly change your life in wonderful ways.
Unfortunately, trace minerals are scarce in the food supply, often due to modern farming practices. That’s one of the reasons we put our faith in supplements. Lithium is found in nearly all rocks and, as water flows over and through rocks and soil, it picks up small amounts of this trace mineral. When people drank regularly from springs and wells, they would get little doses of lithium on a daily basis. At one time, people — including Mark Twain and several past U.S. presidents — traveled to Lithium Springs in Georgia to collect drinking water because of its natural abundance in the mineral. Believed to have beneficial effects on people’s moods, it was at one time used to treat depression. While most people drink treated water today — removing harmful substances as well as natural trace elements — more recent research reveals a wide range of health benefits associated with the use of lithium. One of the important things lithium does is slow down the aging process by regulating the enzyme glycogen synthase kinase-3, GSK-3. Too much of this enzyme can lead to age-related conditions that we accept as part of growing old. Some studies have found that people who live in areas with even modest levels of lithium in their drinking water tend to live longer. Even those who take low doses for medical reasons have lower mortality rates from diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Lithium is critical in slowing down the aging process, protecting the brain, and improving mental health. Small doses may be effective in slowing cognitive decline and conditions like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Could it be the secret ingredient in the “Fountain of Youth” that we all seek? PS
Karen Frye is the owner and founder of Nature’s Own and teaches yoga at the Bikram Yoga Studio. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Tranquil mornings, long beach walks, and evening cruises, all await you on the island of Wrightsville Beach and the historic Blockade Runner Beach Resort. Stay two nights and leave the rest to us! Our Cabana Package includes a full day cabana, breakfast each day, valet parking for up to two cars and high-speed Wi-Fi.
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l a u t Vir
Supporting the Foundation’s Cancer CARE Fund and Moore Free & Charitable Clinic Mammography Scholarships Run/walk your 8K anytime between:
Sat., Oct. 10 - Sun., Oct. 18, 2020
All paid registrations are eligible for prize drawings. Please log your race time and photos on our 1in8K Facebook page or email to 1in8KVirtual@firsthealth.org
Register at runsignup.com or download a form at www.firsthealth.org/1in8K Registration Fee: 8K Run/Walk - $25 FirstHealth Employee - $20
T-shirt Pick-up – October 8 and October 9 from 2 to 8 p.m.: FirstHealth Fitness – Pinehurst located at 170 Memorial Drive, Pinehurst, NC 28374 Must register by Oct. 1 to receive a T-shirt. For more information contact the Foundation of FirstHealth at (910) 695-7500 or www.firsthealth.org/1in8K
959-180-20
THE OMNIVOROUS READER
The Write Stuff What makes memorable writing work?
By Stephen E. Smith
“These are the times that try men’s
souls.” “The world will little note nor long remember . . .” “A date which will live in infamy . . .” “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
The right words arranged in the best order have always served to rally us in moments of crisis, and although we have, of late, been inundated with words beyond number, no one has assembled the vocabulary that sums up our deep sense of frustration. Farnsworth’s Classical English Style (2020 revised edition) is the third volume in a series that focuses on words, metaphor, rhetoric and style in English usage, and although the author doesn’t address the present failure of language, he goes far in explaining what makes specific semantic patterns enduring. Farnsworth’s approach is straightforward. He parses great writing by great writers: Abraham Lincoln, Edmund Burke, Winston Churchill, William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and many others whose eloquence survives even in our present circumstances — writers who understood the enduring principles of style but who were willing to violate those principles in the service of meaning and resonance. Whereas most books on style offer formulas or impose a system for aspiring writers to follow, Farnsworth illustrates by use of example, citing short, familiar quotes to explain how memorable passages work. It is up to the reader to translate the lessons implicit in the writings of Lincoln or Churchill or in the King James Bible into a form that is acceptable in our times. Therein lies the benefit — and for the less disciplined reader, the rub. If you aren’t enthralled with language and its possibilities, the book is little more than a cure for insomnia. If, on the other hand, you’re a lover of words, Farnsworth’s latest offering might be just what the doctor ordered in the heart of a pandemic — a self-reflective occupation with the written word. The opening chapters focus on word derivation with attention to the effects of Saxon and Latinate words, and how they shape meaning when used in opposition. “There are two ways to say almost anything in English: with little words or big ones,” Farnsworth writes. “More precisely, you can say most things with older, shorter words that have Germanic (or ‘Saxon’) roots, or with longer words The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
that came into the language more recently — perhaps six or seven hundred years ago — from French, and before that from Latin.” Examples: ask/inquire; break/damage; luck/fortune; come/arrive, etc. Saxon words are short, direct, often one syllable, while Latinate words take prefixes and suffixes and are less likely to create an image in the reader’s mind — the visible vs. the conceptional. Admittedly, there’s little new in this observation, and Farnsworth quotes English historian Thomas Macaulay, who detected, more than 100 years ago, the Latinate fault in the work of Samuel Johnson: “All his (Johnson’s) books are written in a learned language, in a language which nobody hears from his mother or his nurse, in a language in which nobody ever quarrels, or drives bargains, or makes love, in a language in which nobody ever thinks . . . ” Thus he cleverly employs Macaulay’s critique as both explanation and example. Beyond this obvious observation, the reader is introduced to the more obscure nuances of word usage, demonstrating that the best writing — the most powerful writing — is a mix of Saxon and Latinate words, and he supplies and analyzes numerous passages from the King James Bible, Shakespeare and Lincoln: “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s . . . .” “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof,” “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hands?” “Ambition should be made of sterner stuff,” etc. Many of the most recognizable passages begin with Latinate words and end with a strong series of Saxon words, as with Patrick PineStraw
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OMNIVOROUS READER
CRAFTED TO DISCOVER BIRDY
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Henry’s “I conceive it my duty, if this government is adopted before it is amended, to go home” — emphasizing the power created by word arrangements that stand in opposition to one another while keeping the demands on the reader (what Farnsworth calls “the cognitive load”) at a minimum. The book’s central chapters explicate active and passive voice, sentence variations, and esoterica such as metonymy, anacoluthon, right- and left-branching, and direct and indirect approaches to the audience and situation, all of which are, despite the pedantic terminology, easily accessible. The book’s final chapters, “Cadence: Classic Patterns” and “Cadence: Combinations & Contrasts,” which deal with prosody, the study of the stress and intonation in language, can be a trifle deadly — reminiscence of junior high English classes where you were tortured with scansions of Poe’s bouncy “The Raven” or Christopher Marlowe’s “Was this the face that launch’d a thousand ships. . . .” During a raging pandemic, who gives a rip about spondees and pentameters? Still, Classical English Style is immensely entertaining, an indulgence for anyone wishing to escape the moment, and it’s worth a careful read, if for no other reason than it collects memorable quotes, a sort of Greatest Hits of clear and beautiful communication. So where are the words we need to hear? Where is the unifying sentence or paragraph so necessary at this time in our shared distress? It may have been uttered by George Floyd as he lay on the asphalt with a knee on his neck. Whether accidental metaphor or straightforward reality, “I can’t breathe” — a simple Saxon sentence that Farnsworth would find perfectly acceptable — may well sum up our collective state of mind, although it does nothing to lift us out of the funk in which we find ourselves. PS Stephen E. Smith is a retired professor and the author of seven books of poetry and prose. He’s the recipient of the Poetry Northwest Young Poet’s Prize, the Zoe Kincaid Brockman Prize for poetry and four North Carolina Press awards. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
EVERYTHING BEAUTIFUL IN ITS TIME Virtual Book Tour
Unfortunately we will not be able to have Jenna Bush Hager physically in The Country Bookshop like we planned… instead we have the opportunity to bring Jenna Bush Hager in conversation with other luminaries in your living room! Jenna Bush Hager Everthing Beautiful in Its Time: Moderated by Brooklyn Decker Join Jenna and Brooklyn for a livestream experience discussing her new book Sept 8th, 8:00 PM (EST)
Jenna Bush Hager Everthing Beautiful in Its Time: Moderated by a Special Guest Join Jenna and a special guest for a livestream experience discussing her new book Sept 9th, 1:00 PM (EST)
Jenna Bush Hager Everthing Beautiful in Its Time: Moderated by Jon Meacham Join Jenna and Jon for a livestream experience discussing her new book Sept 9th, 6:00 PM (EST)
Jenna Bush Hager Everthing Beautiful in Its Time: Moderated by a Special Guest Join Jenna and a special guest for a livestream experience discussing her new book Sept 15th, 9:00 PM (EST)
With your exclusive access to Jenna Bush Hager in conversation you get an autographed copy of her book, Everything Beautiful in Its Time, brought you by The Country Bookshop. FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO GET TICKETS GO TO THE EVENTS PAGE ON OUR WEBSITE OR FACEBOOK.
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BOOKSHELF
September Books FICTION
The Left-Handed Booksellers of London,
by Garth Nix When is a bookseller more than simply a person who sells books? When they are one of the left-handed booksellers of London, of course. And Merlin, a mythical-creature-explaining, weaponat-the-ready, failed bookshop clerk, is one of the most legendary left-handed booksellers of them all. When budding art student Susan Arkshaw wanders into Merlin’s path while searching for her father, her life may never be the same. Quirky, fast-paced, fantasy fun just perfect for fans of Night Circus, Caraval and Jackaby, this little gem is going to be at the top of the recommendations list for the fall.
The Talented Miss Farwell, by Emily Gray Tedrowe Miss Farwell is the bookkeeper for a small town when she discovers her love of art. Moving funds around, she “borrows” to acquire art, then sells it for a profit, repaying the “loan.” But things begin to get out of hand. Will she get caught? It’s amazing how hard it is to change your ways when you’ve been having so much fun! Monogamy, by Sue Miller
Annie and Graham have a comfortable life and a comfortable marriage in Boston. She is a photographer, and he owns a bookstore. Her personality is rather reserved, while his is loving and larger than life. They have two adult children, a son from his first marriage, and a daughter together. They enjoy a close relationship with his ex-wife. When Graham dies suddenly, Annie is at a complete loss in her grief. She also finds herself grappling with rage when she learns that he was unfaithful to her in the days leading to his death. This is an intuitive study of a marriage, friendship, family and how to come to terms with a loved one’s fallibility.
The End of the Day, by Bill Clegg Told in two different time periods and with three main characters and their families, this is a fabulous tale of coveting what someone else has, making assumptions without knowing all the facts, and making decisions whose ramifications affect many others. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
The Evening and the Morning,
by Ken Follett Thirty years ago, Follett published his most popular novel, The Pillars of the Earth. Now, his masterful prequel, The Evening and the Morning, takes us on an epic journey into a historical past rich with ambition and rivalry, death and birth, love and hate, that will end at the dawn of the Middle Ages, where Pillars begins. NONFICTION
ArtCurious: Stories of the Unexpected, Slightly Odd, and Strangely Wonderful in Art History, by Jennifer Dasal ArtCurious is a colorful look at the world of art history, revealing some of the strangest, funniest and most fascinating stories behind the world’s great artists and masterpieces. Through these and other incredible, weird and wonderful tales, ArtCurious presents an engaging look at why art history is, and continues to be, a riveting and relevant world to explore. Dasal is the curator of modern and contemporary art at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh and host of the independent podcast ArtCurious, started in 2016 and recognized as one of the country’s best podcasts by O, The Oprah Magazine and PC Magazine.
Letters of Note: An Eclectic Collection of Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience, compiled by Shaun Usher
In the volume on cats, Florence Nightingale sends care instructions to the woman who has just adopted her angora tomcat, Mr. White. T.S. Eliot issues a rhyming birthday party invitation to all Jellicle cats for his 4-year-old godson. Jack Kerouac’s mother grieves at the death of the family cat. In the volume on music, Keith Richards tells his aunt about bumping into a former schoolmate named Mick Jagger, who also loves Chuck Berry. Yo-Yo Ma wonders whether Leonard Bernstein remembers introducing him onstage as a young boy. A Harvard psychiatrist begs CVS to change their on-hold music. Riffing on their passions and surroundings, the artists and entertainers in this volume candidly reveal the sources of their inspiration, what music means to them, why they create it, and so much more. PineStraw
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BOOKSHELF
Our Tarot, by Sarah Shipman
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by Jean Reagan In bookstores and in libraries, with voices quiet or voices LOUD, books are best when shared with someone — and even more fun when that someone is a grandma or grandpa. In this latest installment in her super
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
BOOKSHELF
cute “How To” series, Reagan shows how wonderful books can be when shared with someone you love. This is the perfect title for Grandparents Day, Sunday, Sept. 13. (Ages 3-8.)
Wild Symphony,
by Dan Brown Yes, that Dan Brown. There’s more to life than meets the eye, and there’s more to Wild Symphony than just a simple picture book. There are poems (20 of them), adorable animals (bouncing kangaroos, clumsy kittens and a cheetah chase), and even an animal orchestra! Most importantly, though, there are short asides to remind readers to “listen to nature,” “slow down and enjoy today,” and “get back on your feet when you fall down.” The perfect gift for anyone of any age from the author of The Da Vinci Code. (Ages 4-6.)
The Similars, by Rebecca Hanover
Emma’s life was torn apart last summer when she found her best friend, Oliver, dead. Now she has to return to school without him. Her high school, Darkwood Academy, prides itself on its diversity and, because of this, they are the first school to allow clones to attend alongside the “Originals.” One of the clones is of her dead best friend. Throughout the book Emma works to uncover secrets about the “Similars,” discovering surprising twists about Oliver’s death, and learning that she may be more similar to these Similars than she could ever have anticipated. (Ages 14 and up.) (Review by Ella Pate.) PS Compiled by Kimberly Daniels Taws and Angie Tally The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
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Webinars are Now Available! Interested in learning about how captioned telephone service works or what type of accommodations and resources are offered for people with hearing loss? Monthly webinars are available for people with hearing loss, agencies working with people who have disabilities, or advocates interested in learning about the CapTel NC service and state program. It’s easy to sign up Using the video conference app Zoom, sign up at captelnc.com/webinar and you will receive an email with a link to join the call. All webinars will be accessible with captioning. It’s free! North Carolina residents and professionals can participate at no charge. For more information, contact: Kim Calabretta, CapTel NC Manager n 919 415 1461 n kim.m.calabretta@sprint.com n captelnc.com/webinar
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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
HOMETOWN
From Otis to Opie The ultimate Carolina classic
By Bill Fields
I was only 16 months old when the
first episode of The Andy Griffith Show aired Oct. 3, 1960. It’s safe to say in the six decades since, I’ve made up for what I missed from Mayberry that Monday evening.
If I had to classify my fandom for the classic situation comedy, I would put the needle somewhere between devoted and rabid. I don’t have a handmade Mayberry sheriff’s uniform hanging in my closet. My car antenna is not of the whip variety like that on the squad car driven by Andy and Barney. I have never made a pilgrimage to Mount Airy, Andy Griffith’s North Carolina hometown and inspiration for the fictional Mayberry. However, I have scared a few folks through the years with my TAGS knowledge. I wouldn’t win a trivia contest with a true diehard — someone who can quote everything Ernest T. Bass said in his appearances — but I wouldn’t lose in the first round. A loser wouldn’t know the two characters Allan Melvin played who threatened to beat up Barney (Fred Plummer) and Howard Sprague (Clyde Plaunt). A loser couldn’t recall that the long-sought fish, “Old Sam,” was a silver carp. A loser wouldn’t know, as if quickly recalling a first cousin, that the pen name given to teacher-turned-children’s author Helen Crump was Helene Alexian DuBois. The show ran eight seasons, a total of 249 episodes — the first 159 filmed in black and white, and the remaining 90 in color. Some devotees dismiss the three seasons of color shows because they lacked Don Knotts as Barney (except for a few guest appearances) and seem stale compared to earlier seasons. The Nielsen Ratings — and I — disagree. The show, never lower than seventh in the ratings, went out in 196768 (Season 8) at No. 1. The only other TV shows to bow out on top
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
were I Love Lucy and Seinfeld. No doubt Knotts as Deputy Fife was the genius character in the series. Knotts played Barney to perfection, a bumbling but lovable character whether he was getting locked in a jail cell or was on a date with Thelma Lou in his salt-and-pepper suit. Griffith knew Knotts was the show’s comedic engine, and after Season 1 the sheriff shelved hayseed ways — including an extreme Southern accent — in order to be a straight man offering counsel and comfort to Knotts’ character when he inevitably screwed up. Barney and the other characters wouldn’t have resonated as much as they do without strong writing either. It was smart. Anyone my age or younger — I was 8 when the final episode was broadcast — basically knows The Andy Griffith Show through reruns, DVDs and now, streaming services. About 130 hours of TAGS were filmed. It has given me many multiples of that time in pleasure. Beyond the comedic value, North Carolinians always felt pride that the show depicted the Old North State despite being filmed in California. (And a clip of Seattle was used to portray Raleigh in one episode where Andy and Barney visited the state capital.) Most of the actors who brought Mayberry to life and have made us laugh for so long are gone now. Betty Lynn (Thelma Lou) is in her 90s and lives in Mount Airy. Ron Howard (Opie Taylor) is 66, having grown up from child actor to big-time movie director. When I was in college at Carolina, Griffith, one of the school’s celebrated alumni, returned to Chapel Hill as University Day speaker. I arrived early at Memorial Hall to make sure I got in. He worked in a couple of Duke jokes and had me laughing, the way his show still does when I watch it on my phone — so many years after the unseen Sarah worked the switchboard in Mayberry. PS Southern Pines native Bill Fields, who writes about golf and other things, moved north in 1986 but hasn’t lost his accent. Bill can be reached at williamhfields@gmail.com. PineStraw
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Coming Soon!
Moore County’s Only Hop Beer Garden We are the Sandhills premier farm to table restaurant. Most of the meats cooked to create our sandwiches are raised right here in our beautiful state of North Carolina. We also use local seasonal produce when available and offer vegan and vegetarian fare.
Taste The Difference | Taste What’s Local | Taste The Roast 910.725.7026 | Tyler’s Ridge Shopping Center, | Southern Pines, NC 28327 | www.roastnc.com
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THE KITCHEN GARDEN
Fall Gardens
The reward for sticking out the summer By Jan Leitschuh
It’s hot out. Maybe you’ve noticed.
Do you need a weed-eater to get through your tired summer garden? Is your current output a very few puny, battle-scarred, malformed green remnants drooping from your sprawling, blighted tomato plants? Are you doing the September fire ant dance? Squash, cukes and melons are long over. Who in their right mind wants to think about rooting around in the dirt right now, battling bugs, heat, humidity hell-ants and salty, eye-pickling sweat? Have I sold you on fall gardening yet? You might consider it. That homegrown Thanksgiving cornucopia doesn’t appear by magic. Fall gardens in the Sandhills are nature’s reward for sticking it out during the summer. Your mature eggplant and peppers breathe a sigh of relief, throwing out more blossoms and setting abundant fruits in the cooler evening temps. Okra offers a last generous gasp before succumbing to the dried decorations of autumn. Pumpkins and winter squash ripen. Some fall-sown crops — like spinach, garlic, kale, chard, arugula and collards — may grow well into winter, pause, and then spring back next year with vigor. While the fire ants do kick into gear, in September the remainder of the biting/stinging bugs declines rapidly. Mind your step. Best of all, as the temps finally cool, we remember once again why we love to garden and grow fresh produce for our tables. We actually like being outside. And some lovely floral garden additions, such as poppies, calendula and larkspur, prefer a fall planting for garden glory next spring. Garden prep is the first step. Pull out and destroy those pathetic tomato vines. Make a note of anywhere you planted tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant and peppers this year, because you will want to rotate those crops to different areas next year to avoid disease buildup. Now is the time to pull your soil samples. You can get a free soil test kit and directions from Moore County Cooperative Extension. Add needed nutrients, often just lime and sulpomag, a magnesium/potassium/sulfur additive. It’s also the time to till in some rich compost. Any greens you plant will need a nitrogen boost, so work it in now. I like feather meal or blood meal early on, but as the weather cools, these nutrients aren’t as readily available because the breakdown slows. Save your raked leaves, by the way. I ask my husband to bring home the bags of crape myrtle and maple leaves he acquires in his
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
work. These small, thin leaves break down quickly. I often use them lightly for a little early garden mulch, or I spread them atop beds that will be fallow over the winter, to be tilled under by worms or our tiller in the spring. Waxy, tougher leaves like oak and magnolia can work, but will need to be run over with the mower or otherwise shredded or broken down. I’ll also mulch the blueberries, blackberries, grapevines and fruit trees with fall leaves. What can you plant in your fall garden? Believe it or not, if you hustle, you can still plant a mess of bush snap beans through, say, mid-September, and cross your fingers. Look for a variety that matures in 50-55 days. Likewise, carrots need to go in immediately. Beets, spinach and chard, often planted in August, could still go in during the first two weeks of September. If you enjoy dill, toss some in, as well as a few transplants of parsley for winter-long greenery and flavor. Fresh parsley in homemade chicken soup is scientifically proven to cure what ails you, right? We all know about tougher stewing greens — collards, chard and kale — and while those are nice, even wildly nutritious, they don’t excite the imagination as much as, say, an experimental patch of sugar snap peas, or a bed of carrots that, if covered with straw before a hard frost, provide a long season of cold storage. (Just uncover and pull a fresh handful for that night’s stew or roast pork.) Some gardeners lay a board over their newly watered carrot seeds to encourage germination. Check daily and remove the board when the seeds sprout. Spicy radishes are satisfying to sow, as they spring up almost immediately. They’re as near to instant gratification as a seed-packet garden gets. Plant a few each week in succession for a continuous addition to fall salads and veggie roasts — yes, you can roast them, and they sweeten up in the oven. Bulb onions can go in now, and add PineStraw
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THE KITCHEN GARDEN
their savory healthfulness to most any meal. If you want cabbages, broccoli, bok choy, parsley or cauliflower, you would do well to start with plants from a garden center or local farmer who grows them. Garlic cloves can be planted in the latter part of September for a May harvest for green garlic, a June harvest for full heads. You can seed many different types of lettuce. Blackseeded Simpson is a loose-leaf, cold-hardy old favorite. Cut-and-come-again loose-leaf lettuces are popular and colorful. Likewise, mustard greens, spicy Italian arugula, turnips, parsnips, spinach, rutabaga, kale and chard can be seeded right now. Seeds that normally germinate in spring’s cold soils may need a little indoor help in fall’s early scorch and drought. You can wet sturdy paper towels, sprinkle your seeds on top and roll the towel up like a cigar. Fold it in half and tuck it into a paper cup, labeling the seed. Stick in your fridge for a couple of days, checking carefully after the second day to see if dormancy has broken. Keep the paper towel moist until it does. If you don’t care to fill up your summer beds with fall produce, then by all means clean up the old plants and stakes, and till those leaves in. Or consider sowing a cover crop such as vigorous winter rye — the roots of rye burrow down deeply for good distances, automatically enriching your garden beds with organic matter. Mow them in spring and turn under for a green manure. Finally, our favorite winter cover crop, the vibrant crimson clover, can be found at local farm stores. So striking in spring, crimson clover is often used in bouquets, vibrating its scarlet blossoms against spring green foliage. Besides adding nitrogen and green manure to the soils, the blossoms are beloved by bees and makes the best honey, in my opinion. If you are done with 2020 gardening, no judgment. It’s been a weird, buggy year, and there is local produce about. But I’d be willing to take bets that when the January seed catalogs roll around in early 2021, we will have left the memory of heat and bugs long behind. PS Jan Leitschuh is a local gardener, avid eater of fresh produce and co-founder of Sandhills Farm to Table. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
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IN THE SPIRIT
Let’s Be Perfectly Clear Juice porn for nerds
By Tony Cross
Six years ago, I purchased the book
PHOTOGRAPH BY TONY CROSS
Liquid Intelligence, by Dave Arnold. When it arrived in the mail, I remember thumbing through the pages and quickly realizing that everything I was laying my eyes on went right over my head. “Ohhhh man, I’m dumb,” I thought. The book deals with the science of cocktails, and it’s laid out like a textbook. I failed chemistry in high school, so it’s safe to say this triggered scary flashbacks and my PTSD with, well, being dumb.
As insecure as I was, I still marveled at Arnold’s brilliance and passion for perfection chapter by chapter. There were some tricks I picked up right away — like how to properly milk-wash a spirit — but these little gifts were few and far between. If you’ve ever looked through the book, you’ll know exactly what I mean. The section that intrigued me the most was Part 3: Clarification. “Unclear liquids are actually suspensions, containing particles that reflect and scatter light in a random pattern that makes the liquid appear milky. Clarification removes these particles.” Pictured was a glass of cloudy, blended strawberry juice and next to it a glass of clear strawberry juice. Arnold goes on to say, “Why clarify? Why breathe?” I was hooked. There are a few ways to clarify juices. I’m going to talk about centrifuging — the way I clarify — but feel free to check out Liquid Intelligence for others. So, what’s a centrifuge? Have you ever donated blood? When they take the tube with your blood, they put it in this machine that spins the tubes thousands of times the force of gravity. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
This allows the platelets and blood plasma to be separated from the other blood components. That machine is a centrifuge. For juices, centrifuges spin so fast that the solid particles in the liquid get thrown to the outside; this is called centrifugal force. But you know that, right? You’ve been on a Tilt-A-Whirl. When Arnold’s book came out, the cheapest centrifuge (to produce large volumes) wasn’t. It came in at just under $10,000. Yikes. I was bummed. But then, a few years later, Dave made an announcement that he had created the first centrifuge for bartenders and chefs. The Spinzall was released in 2017, and to my knowledge, it’s still the only centrifuge on the market catering specifically to bartenders/home bartenders. A friend of mine got one for Christmas from his wife, and I was able to tinker around with it. (His wife told me that it was still in the box! Gimme!) I was asked to give a science-based cocktail class around that time — hey, I told the committee I was completely unaware of what science is but they didn’t care — and was hoping that the centrifuge would come in handy. Following the directions and using the correct enzymes to break the solids down (more on that in a moment), I was able to clarify fresh strawberries. When the Spinzall finished doing its thing, I was in love. This might not do it for you, but it is what it is. I was so excited I took pictures and live video of the clarified juice coming out of the centrifuge. Everyone I told or messaged smiled or texted back saying “cool,” but nobody really gave a rat’s ass. You’re into brunettes, I’m into blondes. Whatever. Google this Spinzall thing and I’ll break down how simple it is to use. Let’s take strawberries as an example. You’ll need 400 grams washed and diced organic strawberries and an enzyme called Pectinex Ultra SP-L. You need this exact type. I found a knockoff version on Amazon, and it did not work. (What’s a counterfeit enzyme look like anyway?) You can get the Pectinex over at modernistpantry.com. Pectinex Ultra SP-L is an enzyme that breaks down pectin structure. PineStraw
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IN THE SPIRIT
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As Dave points out in this book, SP-L “is a mix of enzymes that are purified from Aspergillus aculeatus, a fungus found in soil and rotting fruit.” Basically, SP-L busts a cap in pectin’s liver. It’s needed to clarify most juices, so I always have a large bottle handy. And just like using the centrifuge, SP-L is easy to use. Here we go: Put your washed and diced strawberries into a blender on medium for 30 seconds. Add 2 milliliters of Pectinex SP-L, and then blend on medium (or medium-high, depending on your blender) for another minute to two. Let sit for a few minutes and you’re ready to run it through your Spinzall. This is where I’m going to stop giving advice. Arnold provides online videos with detailed operating and safety instructions so you won’t put an eye out. You may be asking yourself, “Why the hell do I want to clarify?” If you’re working in the kitchen at a restaurant, this centrifuge does way more than clarifying juices. It also makes herb oils, purees, no-churn butter, etc. If you’re a bartender, clarified juices can be used to make shelf-stable cordials (when paired with appropriate food-grade acids). Juices that are clarified are silky and smooth on the palate. Try making a daiquiri with clarified lime juice and you’ll see what I mean. If you’re not in the business, I can see why you may be hesitant to purchase this for your home bar. But, if you really geek out on cocktails and love playing host for your friends and family, go for it. There are so many ways to put the Spinzall to use that you won’t get bored. As for me, this centrifuge has been monumental for Reverie Cocktails. It’s allowed us to look at our cocktails in a whole new light. Making and distributing kegs of carbonated cocktails is completely different from making them one at a time, and this sucker has been a lifesaver. Even if you don’t gravitate (oh, geez, sorry about that) toward owning a centrifuge, or have zero interest in clarifying anything, I hope this high school chemistry dropout has shed the smallest ray of light on how science is everywhere, even in your cocktail glass. PS Tony Cross is a bartender (well, ex-bartender) who runs cocktail catering company Reverie Cocktails in Southern Pines. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
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HOME BY DESIGN
Hello Kitty, Martha and Me
And the shattering fragility of life
By Cynthia Adams
My friend Martha “Mac” was
a formidable woman; unceremonious, fiercely smart, irreverent. Standing 6 feet tall in her bare feet, she was what some might call “substantial” — think Julia Child in her later years. (That is, if Julia had never picked up a whisk and had become a business professor.)
Martha loved good design, but didn’t give a happy hoot for clothing. Chief among her passions were American glassware, jewelry, antiquities, Mid-Century Modern furniture, British mysteries and biographies, travel, Kinky Friedman, Cook Out burgers, Duke U. and . . . Hello Kitty. As the Sesame Street song goes, “one of these things is not like the others.” That unlikely thing was Hello Kitty. Hello Kitty celebrated her 45th anniversary last year, bookending my friend’s final exit. Martha, who died last May, would have hated missing the Hello Kitty Friends Around the World Tour, which kicked off last fall in L.A. I believe she would have been there. She was a die-hard Pepper. As Martha’s health failed, she pivoted from Pepsi and Dr Pepper to diet Dr Pepper, but remained faithful as ever to the big plush feline with the pink hair bow. Martha lived in stark contrast to Kitty, never one-dimensional, with the sort of intense presence that no one could miss. She did not suffer fools gladly. Martha’s academic achievements were serious but she adored understatement and devastatingly dry wit.
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Also unlike Kitty, she was unpredictable. Martha once declared she would visit all the locales of books she enjoyed, including Franklin, Tennessee, where a Confederate widow buried nearly 1,500 dead soldiers. She sent me a postcard from the setting of Widow of the South. Typically acerbic, Martha scrawled on the back, “Lots of graves.” She meandered on to the west coast of Florida, then wound up in Austin, Texas, where she earned her doctorate. Another such junket led her to glass-making sites across the United States, stopping off in Weston, West Virginia, where she was a longtime board member of The Museum of American Glass. At one time, she drove a two-seater Honda CRX, which required her to imitate a contortionist to get behind the wheel. Martha’s mind, formidably quick, far outpaced a body that slowed to a lumber. Still, she traveled alone. “Intrepid” is the inadequate word that comes to mind. The word “carapace” also fits. Martha had a protective shell. An initiation preceded friendship. She allowed you into her world once you proved you were unafraid of her. My hubby succeeded by offering his delicious mashed potatoes in a pot straight off the stove. Delightedly, Martha plunged the spoon into the pot, declaring them the “best mashed potatoes ever.” They remained lifelong friends. When Amazon evolved from bookseller to behemoth, Martha was an early adopter, and eBay became an obsession. Both allowed her to indulge her Hello Kitty passion full on. One Christmas, Martha gave me one of the most memorable gifts I have ever received: a padded Hello Kitty toilet seat. She kept a Hello Kitty toaster for herself. PineStraw
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HOME BY DESIGN
The following birthday, Martha gave me a Hello Kitty notepad and a bag of assorted chocolates. Also, Keith Richard’s excellent autobiography, Life, which she had just hoovered down, as she did with books. The Hello Kitty gifts perplexed me given that I am a dog person. She indulged a love of turquoise to the point she once bought a necklace — bigger than the coveted Squash Blossom design — and large enough to hoist a car engine with — but glassware was the thing that eclipsed all other passions. The crematorium where her funeral was held last spring was beside a strip joint. As in strippers, not furniture refinishing. I smiled to myself as I parked, thinking how Martha would have appreciated the irony. Friends and family gathered later at Martha’s townhouse, where she had slowly rid herself of the Mid-century Modern furniture, making room for more fragile collectibles. Now steel shelves and racks held hundreds of pieces of exquisite glass: antique, American, European, rare and some less so. Much of it was donated to the Weston museum where she had traveled often to pay homage to great glass design. Sitting on lawn furniture among the glassware, we mourners sipped wine as a storm rumbled. Despite the gathering of folk with doctorates and high IQs, words failed. None of us was equal to the wit Martha’s remarkable originality demanded. So, we shifted awkwardly on our webbed seats, swallowing down the bitter realization that there was no collectible so rare as our fine and fiercely original friend. Months later, invited to choose a piece of glass, I strained to admire an unfamiliar piece from a shelf top; it toppled and crashed as if pushed by an invisible finger. “Oh, shit!” I exclaimed, stricken. “Exactly what Martha would have said,” came the dry reply from Jim, her executor. Of course, I thought bitterly. Hemingway was wrong about the lucky growing strong at the broken places. I swept up the shards and took what remained of the piece home. PS Cynthia Adams is a contributing editor to PineStraw and O.Henry. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
OUT OF THE BLUE
A Square to Spare Roll Out the Charmin
By Deborah Salomon
When all is said and done, when
the tragedies have subsided and coronavirus has faded, this icon of the pandemic will survive: toilet paper.
Raise a glass to Quilted Northern. Chisel Charmin in marble. Curtsey to Cottonelle. Whatever happened to Kimberly-Clark’s Delsey, the industry standard for decades? Whichever you choose, don’t call it “paper.” The correct appellation: bath tissue. I could not find a single brand bearing the word “toilet,” either. My first reaction to the shortage was . . . what genius predicted it and started hoarding? Pre-hurricane, pre-snowstorm and pre-asteroid collision, bottled water, milk, bread and diapers disappear from shelves. Yet threatened with a lockdown, somebody thought: Wait a minute; no office or school, restaurant or store restrooms. Boo-hoo for the loo. In other words . . . going, going, gone. That prognosticator then multiplied homebound persons by five or so daily “gos,” calculated how many sheets per visit per gender, tossed the calculator and dashed to Walmart. Math wasn’t my favorite subject. But whatever the, er, bottom line, the solution was HOARD. The second mystery was the shortage itself. Manufacturers assured a panicked population that their stockpile had not been . . . wiped out. Truck drivers weren’t on strike. The raw materials needed to produce reams were plentiful. Yet not until late June were stores, uh, flush with supply. Peanut butter a-plenty. Ditto PopTarts. Two-ply, scarce. Right about now I usually investigate the history of my subject, for perspective. I did. You don’t want to know. Not even the Romans with their public latrines and marble residential potties had TP. Paper, remember, was a highly prized commode-ity reserved for The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
manuscripts. By the 14th century the Chinese produced scented paper wipes for Imperial tushes. But not until 1857 did American Joseph Gayetty market “medicated paper for the water closet,” exorbitantly priced at 50 cents ($16 today) for 500 folded sheets. The first rolls appeared about 1890, initiating that still-unsolved conundrum: pull from under or over? Since then, the industry has spun off more flavors than Oreos. Remember the swipin’ ’70s when TP was a décor item? Colors ranged from violet to blue to green before being discontinued when dyes were cited as irritants. Prints included flowers, bunnies, stars. Etsy still offers custom messages and seasonal imprints, including “Hap-pee Holidays.” Which reminds me: In 1970, while touring the Tower of London, I experienced the results of English tea overconsumption. A guard pointed me to the nearest WC. Not only did the TP (in folded sheets, from a dispenser) feel like waxed paper but upon it was imprinted some royal seal. Then, in 1994, The Grateful Dead played a concert near the Vermont town where I lived. We were warned: Deadheads would swarm the environs, stay for weeks, sleep in parks, beg for grilled cheese sandwiches, smoke weed and steal toilet paper from public restrooms. Why, nobody could figure out — for a while. Presently, the emphasis is on quality, although I’m torn between very soft and very strong. Aren’t they the same? And do we need such explicit TV ads, usually around dinnertime? Sure, the cheeky Charmin bears look cute, but their app for bathroom games and Pooptastic emojis are rather . . . execrable. This is a certainty: Squishy mega-rolls of snowy whiteness likened to clouds and kittens will forever remind Americans of the virus that sickened and killed millions worldwide. A real bum-mer. PS Deborah Salomon is a writer for PineStraw and The Pilot. She may be reached at debsalomon@nc.rr.com. PineStraw
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B I R D WA T C H
Fine Young Cannibals
Beware the stealthy Cooper’s Hawk
By Susan Campbell
To some, a hawk is a hawk. Yet here in
the Piedmont and Sandhills of North Carolina, we have 10 different species of these feathered hunters in our area during the course of the year. There are the fast-flying, powerful falcons. Also, you can spot large buteos over open terrain. Around lakes and along the coast, look for fish-eating osprey. And, in addition, there are the less understood, ultra maneuverable bird hawks, known to birders as accipiters (from the Latin “accipere,” to grasp or take).
Slender, fast-moving bird hawks such as Cooper’s hawks and the slightly smaller sharp-shinned hawk are tough to spot and even more difficult to identify. Both can be seen in our area 12 months of the year. Consider that anyone who feeds songbirds will, like it or not, be providing for these ubiquitous bird-eaters’ welfare. To differentiate the two species, one needs good binoculars and more than a little good luck in order to get a good enough view to make the call. A keen eye and being in the right place at the right time can, however, be very rewarding. Adult Cooper’s are handsome with slate-gray back and fine, red barring along the breast and belly. The large head is a dark gray and is set off by a paler neck. Feathers on the crown are often held erect, giving the birds an almost regal hooded appearance. The tail is somewhat rounded and barred with alternating brown-and-black bands with a narrow white tip. The legs too are relatively long and yellow with very strong and sharp talons. The sexes of Cooper’s hawks are identical in appearance with the exception that the females are approximately 15 percent larger than males. As a result, males must be cautious, even around their mates, since they are in the size range of prey that females may take. They will not only make submissive calls but listen for reassuring vocalizations from the female during the breeding season to be The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
assured of their safety. Young birds have brown streaking on the breast and belly, which may take up to two years to be replaced by adult plumage. So as is common with the larger hawks, yearling Cooper’s may not breed until their second summer. As with other accipiters, Cooper’s hawks are adapted to hunting in closed canopy forest. Their shorter, rounded wings and long tail make them well-suited to moving through forested habitat. They will commonly fly low to the ground and then precipitously maneuver up and over obstacles to ambush prey on the far side. They also hunt on the ground, walking about through thick cover looking for sparrows and other smaller birds hidden within. Cooper’s hawks have one brood in late spring to early summer. The male constructs the large stick nest high in a mature tree during about a two-week period. Once the nesting begins, he will feed the incubating female as well as gather most of the food for the nestlings. The female Cooper’s defends the nest vigorously and broods the young birds until they are well feathered. Although it is not uncommon for backyard birdwatchers to see one of these masterful hunters with a fresh kill, like all predators they miss more than they actually catch. Furthermore Cooper’s hawks eat a variety of prey including squirrels and other rodents. The birds they do catch tend to be the most common species such as mourning doves and, in more urban locations, rock doves (pigeons) and European starlings, none of which are at all in short supply even in our area. Cooper’s hawks were one of the species negatively affected by DDT usage in the middle of the last century, but they have rebounded very well. And nowadays they are not averse to living alongside humans even in more open terrain if prey is abundant. Families of Cooper’s have been documented in the yard of folks in Whispering Pines as well as Southern Pines in recent years. Not too many people can boast of sharing a piece of woodland with one of the world’s most skillful fliers. So keep your eyes peeled and maybe you, too, will find these amazing creatures living in your neighborhood as well! PS Susan would love to receive your wildlife observations and/or photos at susan@ncaves.com
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SPORTING LIFE
Fields of Dreams
Remembering conversations with old friends By Tom Bryant
I backed the old
Bronco out of her resting place in the garage and loaded it with my hunting paraphernalia. The gear for this trip was negligible because it was just an afternoon chase, and I’ve learned after many hunting seasons to travel light. As far as that goes, most of my dove shoots over the last several years have just been an excuse to get to the woods, not much shooting involved.
The little farm I lease, ostensibly for bird hunting, is only 30 minutes from home and one of the prettiest pieces of property I’ve been on in a while. It’s about a hundred acres, maybe a little more, and used to be a tobacco farm. Two old barns are still on the property and provide a haven to escape bad weather when needed. I pulled the Bronco into a grove of pines, shut it down, grabbed my dove stool out of the back and found a nice shady spot close to the field to set up and watch for doves. It was still hot. September always is. Not much different from August, maybe a little respite later in the day, but hot anyway. I watched the field for a short while. I could see a few birds working toward the north end but not much on my side, where I had decided to hunt. So I wandered back to the Bronco, put the tailgate down, fetched some water from the cooler and perched on the back like my dogs and I used to do. I had two yellow Labs, not at the same time, but in different eras of my life. My first, named Paddle, lived 14 years and hunted with me almost every time I went to the woods. She was with me in my early hunting days, the time of my life when I was still figuring out what the world was all about. She and I had many conversations sitting as I was now on the back of this vintage truck. Mackie, my second Lab, came along right after Paddle went to her reward where birds flew aplenty and the retrieves are always success-
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
ful. Mackie was different. Where Paddle could be described as laidback, Mackie was a little uptight. It’s funny to see how dogs have different personalities, just like people. When we would pull up to a hunting area and I would let Paddle out of the truck, she would walk around slowly, stretch, wander away, do her business, come back, and look up at me as if to say, “OK, boss, let’s go do this thing.” When I let Mackie out of the Bronco, she would hit the turf running, tearing about, nose to the ground, all business, as if birds were everywhere and she didn’t want to miss a one. Mackie was during my adjustment time when I had finally figured out that you couldn’t equate success with money. Money helped, though. It was the barometer used by just about everyone gauging achievement. As the old saying goes, “I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor. Rich is better.” I had many wonderful conversations with each dog sitting on the tailgate of this old truck. They were amazing companions, and not a day goes by that I don’t think of them, especially on opening day of dove season. I walked back to the stool and stood next to an old pine on the edge of the cut cornfield. Doves continued to fly on the north end, but clouds had moved and the sun was now bearing down. Birds don’t fly in this kind of heat, so I sat on the stool, leaning against the pine and remembered a hunt that my old friend Bryan and I had many years ago. It was the first week of the season and, man, it was hot. The kind of heat where it seems you sweat more water than you can drink. Our spot on the field was right beside an overgrown drainage ditch. The crop of corn had been combined the week before, and there was plenty of food for birds. Our problem, though, no shade. A white-hot sun so bright that it looked as if it took up the entire western sky was slowly moving to the horizon. I had backed up the Bronco so it was facing west, which gave us a sliver of shade at the back of the truck. Bryan and I were hunkered down on our stools in the minuscule shadow cast by the tailgate. The hunt looked as if it was going to be a dud, but as the sun began to drop behind the tree line, doves started flying by the hundreds. In less than 30 minutes, we both had our limit. A far off rumble of thunder broke my reverie, and I watched as PineStraw
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SPORTING LIFE
cumulus clouds built up like mountains in the western sky. “It’s gonna storm before sundown,” I said to no one in particular. I miss my dogs, I thought. When I had Paddle and Mackie, I always had someone in the field to talk to. It seems that over the last three or four years, I’m in the woods more and more by my lonesome. My old hunting buddies are aging out, for one reason or another, health problems, other interests, whatever. Now, most days out in the countryside find me a solitary fellow. As the thunder persisted toward the west and it seemed as if the storm might be heading my way, another memory of a long-ago dove hunt, one that could have been deadly, came to mind. I was hunting a cornfield that abutted a small tobacco patch and was walking the dirt tractor path in between the two planted fields. The Bronco was parked at the top of a small rise, almost to the trees, about a hundred yards away. Suddenly, a dove fluttered up out of the standing tobacco, probably having gotten grit from the plowed areas for its craw to help in processing food. I shot and it fell somewhere in the rows of plants. Paddle had died the season before, so retrieving was up to me. While all this was going on, I noticed a squall line coming over the trees right toward me, so I stepped up the pace to find the dove. I had just spotted it and was bent over to pick it up when the hair on my arms and the back of my head stood up. I dropped the shotgun to the ground and hunched over to make myself as small as I could, and BAM! A bolt of lightning hit a giant white oak in a peninsula of woods jutting out in the tobacco field not 50 yards from where I was hunkered down. The storm was closer now, so I picked up my gear and moved to the Bronco as the first big splats of raindrops pounded on the roof of the little truck. I turned it around to get a better view of the storm coming across the cornfield. Lightning was popping here and yonder and thunder rolled across the trees. It was a sight that never grows old: Mother Nature showing the critters, me included, who’s boss. PS Tom Bryant, a Southern Pines resident, is a lifelong outdoorsman and PineStraw’s Sporting Life columnist. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
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G O L F T OW N J O U R NA L
Deep Thoughts A mind is a terrible thing to waste
By Lee Pace
I have a game Saturday morning
with the regular guys. Shoes shined, clubs buffed, sunscreen in the bag. Now to work on my swing and my mental game through the week.
Today I’m going to hit a few balls with my bevy of training aids and gadgets I’ve collected over the years. I have one device I pull over my left arm and elbow to keep them straight on the backswing. I have another that functions more as a sleeve and goes on the right arm to keep it from breaking down on pitch and chip shots. I have a strap that both arms are inserted into at elbow range to help me “stay connected.” I have a special glove for my left wrist to keep it from cupping and a gizmo to put on my right wrist that will make an audible click if I hinge the joint properly. I have one practice club with a tiny sweet spot and a thick flange that forces me to lean the shaft into impact with a descending blow, else the ball clunks off the bottom flange. I have another gadget that attaches to my driver and acts as a sail, using the wind resistance to improve my sequencing and strength. Swing plane is ever so important. I have a laser light that attaches to the grip of the club and emits a light to show where the butt of the club is pointing at takeaway and throughout the swing. I have a maze of pool noodles mounted on alignment sticks stuck in the ground to provide landmarks on where the club should be
The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
on the backswing and then the downswing. I have an impact bag (a canvas bag filled with towels) set on the ground to promote a strong left side upon ball contact. My metronome helps me develop a consistent tempo from start to finish — both full swing and putts. I have decals on my clubface that clearly show where the ball strikes the club — flush, high, low, heel or toe. Finally, I have this cool rectangular board that sits on the ground, between my feet, and encourages proper foot pressure and movement throughout the swing. (And don’t be silly. These gadgets are not a problem; I can stop anytime I’d like.) My swing in proper fiddle, now I’ll work on my inventory of swing keys. Flick your nose and go into a cool, dark room as you study your shot. See the target. Athletic posture. Let your mouth relax (so says PGA Tour veteran Keegan Bradley). Flat back, beware of rounding. Light grip pressure. Left thumb on top of grip. Let the arms hang. Trust the hands (whatever that means, but it worked for Tiger Woods). Right shoulder low. Chin up. Splay the feet. PineStraw
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Watch the back of the ball. A little forward press with the hands. Low and slow. Stand tall, stay down. Tempo. Swing easy, hit hard. Hinge the wrists going back. Stretch the right hand as far back as possible. Elbows close to the body (worked for Ben Hogan, at least). Turn right shoulder behind. Turn left shoulder under. One, two, three back . . . one down. The pause that refreshes at the top. Let gravity begin the downswing. Let arms just fall from top. Get to my left side (once helped Adam Scott shoot 62 on the PGA Tour). Pick a spot 12 inches in front of the ball and hit it hard (a Rory McIlroy favorite). Keep right knee quiet. Keep left heel on the ground. (Unless I’m feeling like Jack Nicklaus and will let that sucker fly.) Stay behind the ball. Turn in a barrel. Back to the target. Keep the elbows connected. Drive left heel into ground on downswing (straight from the syrupy swing of Sam Snead). Hit the ball with your right hip (i.e., fire the hips). Put the right hand in pants pocket on way down (an old Byron Nelson trick to avoid the shank). Compress the ball. Belt buckle to the target. High hands. Hold the finish. Come Saturday, if I want to shoot 77, I’ll pick one of those. If I want to shoot 90 and lose 50 bucks, I’ll pick four of them and hone in on two on the backswing. PS Lee Pace has written ”Golftown Journal” for more than a decade and tries to focus on just one of those swing thoughts—the one from Tom Watson about “going into a cool, dark room” before hitting a shot. Results vary. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
September ���� In Tune with the Pandemic When tuning my acoustic guitar, the oxidized strings having gone flat in the warm humid air, the wire being wound to perfect tension sometimes releases an almost imperceptible chiming, a tiny push of air outward, the string immediately retreating to form a momentary vacuum, vibrating faster or slower subject to the energy expended, but rising to frequency. The child in me believes this spontaneous harmonic relief is a sympathetic response to the strings already in timbre, like voices in a street choir soaring to a single ethereal note that might make you weep. But this is not the case. The string has merely snagged in the bridge pin slot or has failed to slide easily over the nut at the top of the fretboard, a mechanical glitch that can be remedied by applying a touch of graphite from a no. 2 pencil. So simple. So obvious. Still I listen for the ping, hold my breath in expectancy, believing that believing is as essential as complete understanding, that when coaxed to proper pitch the string will sing out with joy as the tuner’s circular gear tugs perpendicular to the worm gear’s rotation, the mechanical workings there to remind me that given enough time the delicate wire will break sharply and never ring true again.
— Stephen E. Smith
Architect of the
Sandhills New Yorker Aymar Embury designed the Sandhills’ most iconic buildings By Bill Case
B
y 1911, 31-year-old Aymar Embury II was already regarded in metropolitan New York circles as a superb architect of “country homes.” A steady stream of commissions had come his way from upper-middle-class clients impressed with the Princeton grad’s uncanny ability to design floor plans containing generously proportioned rooms despite modest square footages to work with. While employed as a draftsman for an architectural firm in the city, Embury entered a 1905 Garden City, Long Island, architectural design competition. He submitted two plans and won both the first and second place prizes. His layouts received favorable mention in publications like Ladies’ Home Journal, and he succeeded in parlaying the public attention into commissions for 10 new home designs. This uptick in fortune enabled Embury to open his own architectural shop in 1907, and he doubled down on his newfound notoriety by writing a book in 1909, One Hundred Country Houses: American Examples. It was the first of numerous architectural tomes he would author. Notwithstanding this success, Embury resented being pigeonholed as a specialist in country house architecture. As the first decade of the 1900s came to an end, he yearned for more challenging assignments involving bigger buildings. His initial opportunity to build a major public edifice came from an unexpected location — 560 miles south in North Carolina’s Sandhills. The resort town of Southern Pines needed a new hotel after its largest, the Piney Woods Inn, burned to the ground in 1910. John Boyd, whose family owned vast Sandhills acreage, formed a corporation for the purpose of constructing a grand new hotel that would overlook the downtown from a vantage point high on a ridge at the
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eastern end of Massachusetts Avenue. Several locals joined Boyd as shareholders in the venture. How Aymar Embury, a New York-based country house designer, persuaded John Boyd and the other investors to retain him as the architect for the Highland Pines Inn in 1911 is uncertain, but the Ivy League may have been involved. Like Embury, John Boyd and his two sons, Jackson and James (the celebrated novelist), were all Princeton alumni. So was the project’s landscape architect, Alfred Yeomans. Regardless of how he obtained the commission, Embury’s efforts resulted in an eye-popping Colonial Revival structure. The magnificent white exterior of the 200-foot-long structure featured linear columns fronting spacious porches, three front entrances, 100 bedrooms, and 60 baths. The hotel’s modern amenities included its own electric and steam plants, and a laundry. The Highland Pines became the town’s social center and a favorite haunt of the foxhunting set. Embury also designed several guest cottages for the inn and three private homes, all within easy walking distance of the grand hotel. Then, John Boyd’s sister Helen Dull (founder of the Southern Pines Civic Club) hired Embury to draw up plans for her prospective residence on Valley Road. Dull would unostentatiously call the place “Loblolly Cottage,” but the 1918 finished product, with its hipped triangular roof, numerous gables, diamond-shaped brick facing and seemingly unending width, appeared more like a majestic manor house befitting a duchess. Though Embury’s Sandhills projects were expanding his architectural portfolio, that undivided attention to his work had exacted a personal cost. “I had not had a day off, even Saturdays or Sundays, since I had left college, not even for sickness,” he wrote. “Perhaps that The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
is one of the reasons my wife (Dorothy, whom he had married in 1905) and I could not get along.” Parents of three sons (Edward, Carl, and Peter), the couple separated in 1913 and ultimately divorced. Just as the 38-year-old began receiving recognition for talents stretching far beyond the design of country lodgings, America entered World War I. Embury became a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stationed in France as part of Gen. John J. Pershing’s American Expeditionary Force. When the Signal Corps failed to implement a plan to use artists to depict the life and activities of the AEF to boost morale in the field and support for the war back home, Capt. Embury asked if he could. He was given the goahead and the unit that was formed ultimately included eight artists, traveling freely, often to the front. An excellent artist himself, the captain was responsible for designing both the Army’s Distinguished Service Cross and the Distinguished Service Medal. Embury only mentioned one of the awards in his resume, saying of the other that he did not “like the form in which the citation is written, and while it is complimentary enough, it makes me a little tired.” After 14 months of military service and a ticker tape parade for Pershing’s returning doughboys, Embury reopened his New York City office and was promptly deluged with new business. The building boom of the Roaring Twenties created high demand for name architects like Embury, and the Boyds (James and Jackson, since their father passed away in 1914) were among the clients first in line. James Boyd had decided the Sandhills would be the ideal place to pursue his dream of writing novels, and in 1920 he retained Embury to plan a home resembling that of Colonial planter
William Byrd of Westover, Virginia. The result was Weymouth House, a rambling, mostly brick structure situated on high ground above Connecticut Avenue. In 1921 Boyd moved in, and four years later would write the Revolutionary War saga Drums. A surprise bestseller, the novel catapulted Boyd to the upper ranks of American writers. The house now serves as home for the Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities. Boyd was not the only Southern Pines resident to hire Embury. Homes in the new Weymouth Heights development were sprouting up faster than spring dandelions, and Embury designed many of them. Admirers of his work found it easy to identify an Emburydesigned home but were often hard-pressed to classify the house’s style of architecture. Elements of English cottage, Federal, Georgian, Norman, Colonial Revival and Dutch Colonial were frequently blended within the same house. Stuck for a label, locals began referring to his architectural creations as “Sandhills style.” Though he employed modern variations to classical design concepts, Embury was critical of the genre of “modern architecture” itself. “Modernists believe that the essence of their work is to do something that has never been done,” he ruminated. “I suppose some of the architects do not use buttons or neckties when they dress!” When asked his views regarding the work of acclaimed modernist Frank Lloyd Wright, he would pithily respond, “No closets!” Opportunities for designing commercial structures also abounded in the Sandhills. After an April 1921 fire destroyed many of the wooden buildings on West Broad Street in Southern Pines, Embury prepared plans for several of the replacement structures, including the U-shaped, old-English style Citizens Bank building, and Dr.
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Loblolly Cottage
Mudgett’s office at 140 S.W. Broad St. Both Southern Pines and Aberdeen needed new schools. The peripatetic architect drafted blueprints for both. According to Embury, the Southern Pines Town Council passed an ordinance requiring that he be hired as architect for all new commercial buildings on Broad Street. The measure was rescinded at the architect’s request. One of Embury’s favorite Sandhills projects was the planning of the Southern Pines Country Club’s clubhouse. Architectural writer Russell Whitehead praised it as “the loveliest small clubhouse in America,” with its “sandy buff stuccoed walls, accents of sandstone, and red brick.” Regrettably, the building would succumb to fire in the 1960s, mirroring the fate of the Highland Pines Inn that burned in 1957. In Pinehurst, Leonard Tufts contemplated the expansion of his mini-empire by building a second golf resort on Midland Road. He formed a stock company that engaged Embury to design a combination hotel and clubhouse to serve the Mid Pines Country Club and its Donald Ross-designed course. Embury submitted plans for a three-story edifice containing 100 bedrooms, all with private baths. The proposal called for a 500-foot-wide, crescent-shaped Georgian structure. The February 2, 1921 edition of The Pilot reported that “the first half is being started at once. When membership warrants it, the second half, in harmony with the first half, will be added to make a perfect whole.” When the hotel and course were finished, it was evident that the Ross-Embury pairing had created something special. For nearly 100
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Weymouth House
years, the venerable inn has provided a spectacular backdrop for golfers playing their uphill approach shots to the 18th green. A golfer himself, in April of 1921 Embury captured first prize in the third flight of Pinehurst’s Mid-April tournament. After the Mid Pines job, Tufts kept Embury busy on numerous Pinehurst projects. One of the most challenging involved shoehorning the new Pinehurst Theatre building into an awkwardly shaped lot. He solved the difficult quandary by devising a hexagonally shaped, vaguely Byzantine structure seating 500 people. The theater opened in 1923 to rave reviews and achieved recognition as one of The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Dr. Mudgett’s Office
Aberdeen High School
Southern Pines Public School
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the premier Southern movie houses. Tufts also asked Embury to plan a new business block in downtown Pinehurst, and several Embury-designed metal-roofed commercial buildings — including an annex to the Harvard Building — grace Market Street today. The omnipresence of Embry structures caused the Moore County News to remark that he had “set his sign manual so persistently on Weymouth Heights, as well as on Knollwood and Pinehurst that the Sandhills country is becoming an Embury dream.” Still, the ambitious architect did not land every commission. After getting wind in 1924 that Tufts was contemplating building a third Sandhills golf resort (ultimately the Pine Needles Inn), Embury made a direct pitch to Tufts for the business, unabashedly writing, “Don’t you think you would like to have me as your architect for this job?” But this was one project that eluded his grasp. Instead, Tufts chose family member Lyman Sise of Boston as the architect for Pine Needles’ massive English Tudor hotel and clubhouse (now Pine Knoll at St. Joseph of the Pines). This slight bump in the road did nothing to hinder the spreading of Embury’s reputation for architectural excellence to other Southern locations. He obtained multiple commissions for homes in Atlanta’s upscale Buckhead neighborhood, and designed clubhouses for Hope Valley Country Club in Durham, Charlotte Country Club, and Mountain Brook Club in Birmingham, Alabama. According to the Princeton Alumni Weekly, Embury undertook additional responsibilities on the Mountain Brook job, selecting the club’s “silver, linen, men’s uniforms, etc.” By the mid-1920s, Embury was also engaged in major commercial projects in the North. Architectural work for churches, libraries, banks, apartment buildings, hotels and country clubs flooded his East 61st St. office in Manhattan. His son Edward joined the firm and became a respected architect in his own right. The son learned close up how his father used formidable artistic skills to impress prospective clients. In the course of an hour-long meeting, the senior Embury would freehand an attractive and detailed sketch of the structure contemplated by the owner. The depiction usually wowed the prospect, and Embury would be retained. Doors to another segment of architecture opened for Embury during the ’20s. He segued into a goto designer for college buildings at the University of Virginia, Wesleyan College, Hofstra College, Williams College, and Kalamazoo College. Eventually, Embury’s alma mater, Princeton, would seek him out for design work on numerous projects, including West Hall, a war memorial at Nassau Hall, and the gargoyleguarded Dillon Gymnasium — still the university’s all-purpose athletic center. It is mildly ironic that Princeton would hire PineStraw
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Mid Pines Country Club
Embury, given the dismal academic record he posted during his time at the university. At the urging of his father, an attorney and Columbia University graduate, he entered the Ivy League school in 1897 at the age of 16. A year later, Embury sneaked away from Princeton and enlisted in the military, hoping to fight in the SpanishAmerican War. The Army promptly sent him back to school after his age was discovered. Embury described his four undergraduate years as “good the first year, fair the second, poor the third, and awful the fourth.” The civil engineering student’s marks for the final semester of his senior year matched the report card of John “Bluto” Blutarsky of Animal House, 0.0. “I suppose” Embury confided, “that I am the only person who graduated from a decent American college who failed in all subjects second term senior year.” He passed those subjects upon re-examination and received his degree in 1900. Despite this unimpressive performance, Princeton accepted him into a fellowship program entailing a year of study in architecture. He would credit fellowship professor Allan Marquand for inspiring a newfound passion for learning. “He fired (me) with an enthusiasm,” Embury wrote in 1938, “for the beauty, not only of antiquity, but of common everyday things that has been a guide and a way to me these forty years.” His turnaround during the fellowship led Princeton to hire him as an instructor in architecture. Embury moonlighted in that position during his early years laboring in the trenches of New York architectural firms. After Embury’s parade of successes during the 1920s, he possessed sufficient resources to indulge in the good life. He moved to a house on E. 62nd St. that enabled him to stroll from home to office in minutes. He wed again, marrying noted landscape architect Ruth Dean, and the two collaborated on projects. A daughter, Judy, was born to the couple. Embury acquired a spacious getaway home in East Hampton on Long Island and played golf regularly at the posh Maidstone Club. Another of Embury’s pastimes was researching his family’s geneal-
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ogy. His ancestors were French Huguenots who, for religious reasons, fled their native country in 1665, settling first in England and then Ireland. In 1758, several Embury family members immigrated to New York, and his great-great grandfather’s brother, Philip Embury, was an early founder of the Methodist Church in America. Though an old-line, socially prominent family, Embury’s connections were not enough to keep his lucrative income stream flowing once the Great Depression hit in the 1930s. Commissions for projects in the Sandhills terminated altogether, and new builds in metropolitan New York slowed to a trickle. The sudden death at home of wife Ruth compounded Embury’s mounting distress. In 1930, he was appointed to a government gig as the New York Port Authority’s consulting architect. Still, the workload was light until New York City’s new Parks Commissioner Robert Moses asked him to serve as lead architect for the new Central Park Zoo in 1934. The financing for the project was coming from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a federal agency vital to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal plan to revitalize the national economy through federally funded public projects that put men who would have otherwise been unemployed to work. Moses commandeered the Central Park Arsenal and converted it into the Parks Department’s new home. Conveniently, the Arsenal was located adjacent to the site selected for the new zoo. To assist Embury, a platoon of out-of-work, but nonetheless capable, New York architects was hastily hired. Most did their work on drafting tables set up in a garage at the Arsenal. The architects were paid $80 a week, a manna-from-heaven windfall at the time. Sixteen days after starting the assignment, Embury handed Moses blueprints for the zoo’s nine new buildings. Producing quality work at a frenetic pace did much to cement the working relationship between the two men. Embury received some favorable, albeit humorous, press from the zoo project. During the planning of the monkey house, former New York Gov. (and Democratic presidential candidate) Al Smith sent the architect a note requesting that his pet The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Southern Pines Country Club
Southern Pines Country Club Card Room Gable
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Southern Pines Country Club Port-cochère
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Pinehurst Theatre Building
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The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
monkey Joe get good quarters. It seems that Joe had once been the governor’s house pet before being transferred to the old zoo (called the “Menagerie”), where Smith visited the ape regularly. According to an article in The New Yorker magazine, Embury played along, stopping by the Menagerie to show Joe the monkey house blueprint. The chimp promptly slapped it away. When the ex-governor was informed, he advised Embury not to worry because Joe “used to live in a mansion in Albany and he is too particular.” For both Moses and Embury, the Great Depression’s hard times began creating opportunity. They would become involved in building hundreds of projects in the city financed just as the zoo had been. The politically astute Moses figured out how to be first in line to receive the millions of dollars doled out by the WPA and other federal agencies. To manage the funds, he arranged to have various public authorities created, and placed himself in sole charge. All types of public works eventually fell within Moses’ purview, and he exercised nearly dictatorial control over them. Though never elected to public office, the megalomaniacal “master builder” held more power in New York than any politician. From his post at the Arsenal, Moses supervised an army of 1,800 professionals and workers who scurried to satisfy the micromanaging commissioner’s every whim. Though Embury characterized working at the Arsenal during the New Deal period as “a madhouse,” he relished the challenge. As Moses’ favorite architect, he put his personal stamp on over 600 WPA public works projects in the city, including schools, hospitals, marinas, police and fire stations, museums and athletic facilities. Many were parks; 11 were city swimming pools. During the summer of 1936, temperatures in New York reached 106 degrees, and Embury’s pools provided welcome relief to the sweltering masses. The facilities were designed to evoke images of faraway places. Called “palaces for the poor,” Embury structures that resemble Romanesque fortresses and Norman castles still grace city pools today. He also planned the New York City Building (now the Queens Museum) for the New York World’s Fair of 1939. Embury handed Moses a set of complete blueprints with elevations for the latter project just four days after being requested to prepare them. According to Embury, “They were adopted on the spot.” But in New York, Embury is best remembered for his design work on bridges. Prior to the 1930s, ferries were often necessary to travel to and from the various islands comprising the city. Working frequently with the noted engineer Othmar Ammann, significant Embury projects included the massive Triborough Bridge (now the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge), the Lincoln Tunnel, Marine Parkway Bridge, Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, the Henry Hudson Memorial Bridge, and Jamaica Bay Bridge. His civil engineering training at Princeton, while rudimentary, helped him establish rapport and a “spirit of collaboration” with Ammann, the engineer — something of a rarity at the time. If Embury’s work activities were occasionally chaotic during the ‘30s, there was also upheaval in his personal life. Two years following Ruth Dean’s 1932 death, he married Josephine Bound, but the union did not last and soon he was single again. In his mid-50s, he still cut a dashing figure. The New Yorker described Embury as “young-looking, brown-haired, sort of Jimmy Walkerish [a stylish New York mayor of the era] man.” According to grandson Philip Embury, Aymar was a “Renaissance man” who carried himself with a confident, patrician air The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
— sort of a male version of movie star Katharine Hepburn. In 1940, he married fourth wife Jane Shebbehar, a woman half his age who worked in the office. Though his accomplishments in the Sandhills were years behind him, Embury kept tabs on developments in the area. The Pilot reported that Embury was advised by a friend in 1936 that the federal government was funding a new post office on Broad Street in Southern Pines. Embury replied that he would submit “a sketch to the Supervising Architect of a building which would conform to the state of architecture here.” The government waived its usual requirement of using its standard exterior post office design and adopted Embury’s plan featuring a diamond-paned window over the entrance. Soon after, he designed an adjoining building for a new library (now housing the Southern Pines utilities operations). An Emburydesigned wing was added to the library in 1948 and dedicated to the memory of his early benefactor James Boyd, who had passed away four years before. Embury donated the plans for the wing “in token of his friendship” with the novelist. With the advent of World War II, the furious pace of public works construction was channeled instead into defeating the Axis powers. After the war and easing into his 70s, Embury stayed as busy as he wanted to be but gradually delegated business affairs to son Edward. He and his wife enjoyed traveling abroad. Jane would later tell the grandchildren that tears would come to her husband’s eyes when encountering ancient, classically designed structures that once had inspired his own designs. In 1955, Embury decided to sell his E. 62nd St. residence. The eventual buyer was film star Tallulah Bankhead, a woman known for her promiscuity as much as her acting. Embury family lore, related by Aymar’s grandson Edward Embury Jr., says that Embury, then 75, gave Ms. Bankhead a personal tour of the home. While inspecting the bathroom, the architect and star lingered inside the generously sized shower to discuss the advisability of converting the area to a bathtub. Thereafter, Embury would puckishly regale friends about the time he shared a shower with the adventurous “Tallu.” Embury’s grandchildren, Philip Embury, Edward Embury and Dottie Statts, and Jane’s nephew Michael Brennan remember happy times visiting Aymar and Jane in East Hampton in the late 1950s and early ‘60s. Aymar organized games and swimming contests and would fork over quarters to the winners. Embury passed away in 1966 at age 86 after a protracted illness. Jane would remarry Robert Benepe. After her death in 1995, family members attending her funeral in New York were treated to a guided tour of Aymar Embury-designed buildings, bridges, pools and parks. The gentleman conducting the tour was Adrian Benepe, the son of Jane’s second husband. Coincidentally, Benepe was then employed by New York City as its Parks Commissioner, Robert Moses’ old post. The New York Times covered the family gathering, making a belated but fitting tribute to Embury, writing, “As chief architect for Robert Moses, he did as much as anyone to bind the city together and to help it dig its way out of the Depression.” Fashioned during its formative years, Embury's footprint in the Sandhills — a land without soaring bridges or commuter tunnels — may have been just as great. PS Pinehurst resident Bill Case is PineStraw’s history man. He can be reached at Bill.Case@thompsonhine.com. PineStraw
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Harmony with Nature In the fast lane at Slow Farm
PHOTOGRAPHS PROVIDED BY RACHEL HERRICK
By Claudia Watson
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chain saw-wielding woman wearing bold red lipstick might be the last thing you’d expect to see on a farm, but at Slow Farm, the untraditional is just everyday life. “We break rules,” says farmer and co-owner Rachel Herrick, during a break from cutting a fallen oak destined for a grow-your-own mushroom workshop. “But there are some rules of farming that need to get broken.” Farming has been in Herrick’s family for generations. She grew up on her family’s farm in Maine, where they raised cattle, hogs and poultry, and grew a market garden and orchard. “All of it was done pretty old-school style,” she recalls. “Hogs in pens, chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Those methods are not our methods.” Like many people who grew up farming, Herrick was encouraged by her family to get an education and get off the farm. Farming was a financial dead end, and backbreaking to boot. “I loved the life, but it’s not easy or especially kind to farmers.” Her education took her into the arts. While she was working on her master’s degree in contemporary art, farming remained at the forefront of her mind, and she struggled to try to create art that genuinely interpreted both her love and sadness for the declining American farm. “I cared about food, animal welfare, pollution, land degradation and the loss of the American farmer,” she says. “Eventually, I realized it was nuts for me to make art about this when the best way for me to cause the kind of change I cared about was to go back and farm.” As Herrick and her husband, Carl, waited for their perfect property to pop up in real estate listings, they researched sustainable The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
farming, land regeneration, ethical farming, heritage farming and historical farming methods. “I knew I wanted to do things differently from how I grew up doing them — to learn from the missteps of my predecessors while honoring them, too,” she explains. “We wanted a farm that was sustainable in every single sense of the word, and we wanted to go into this with our eyes open.” They purchased their 47-acre Cameron farm in 2015. It had been in foreclosure for years, and the buildings were in pitiful condition. Still, Herrick says, “We knew this was our home about halfway up the driveway. It was beautiful, had a wonderful history, and loads of potential.” Today, Slow Farm is a private regenerative farm that uses holistic and historic farming techniques to slowly restore a 150-year-old former tobacco farm to fertile, self-sustaining farmland. They are playing the long game through diversified rotational grazing, no-till over-seeding methods, and eliminating all use of herbicides, fungicides and chemical fertilizers. “No chemicals, no short cuts. It’s the way nature does it,” she says. “The results are awesome and exciting, but incredibly slow, hence the farm’s name, but we’re good with that, too.” The farm’s livestock — pigs, goats and a “flotilla” of poultry — play the most significant role in the project. Each species and breed were researched and matched to the land’s existing resources and deficits to bring the most benefits with as few inputs as possible. They are especially excited about the regenerative potential of their breeding herd of Kunekune (“coo-nee, coo-nee”) pigs, a rare breed of docile, non-rooting, grazing pig from New Zealand. PineStraw
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“They are smaller, and their short little snouts are turned up just so for grazing,” she mimics with her upturned red lips. “They’re a perfect fit for sustainable farms, homesteads or as family companions. Easy on the land and their humans.” Herrick says she was quickly impressed with how different Kunekunes are from the massive white pigs she grew up around. “I was an instant Kune convert,” she laughs. They knew within months that they needed to go “whole hog” on the Kunekunes. They invested in quality registered breeding stock so they could be part of conserving the rare breed, which nearly went extinct in the mid-’80s. Currently, Slow Farm is home to 22 adult Kunekunes and hosts workshops for wannabe Kunekune owners. “It’s one of the benefits of purchasing a Slow Farm pig. You get me for lifetime tech support,” Herrick says with a wink. “There’s always a mentorship component with my pig customers. I really want folks to succeed.” For the past decade, Herrick has worked at an arts organization doing communications, design and event planning — creative skills she uses now to offer a personal and often humorous look into Slow Farm life. But beyond the cute animals and fun portrayed on their social media, it’s all about science. Along the farm’s long driveway, there are acres of open meadows and woodlands supporting an abundance of seen and unseen life. If it looks more like a nature preserve than a farm, it’s all part of the plan. “When we bought this place, there were areas of just open loose sand. Nothing would grow there at all. So to us, a field of broomsedge is a triumph,” she laughs. About half of the farm currently supports the Kunekunes, brush goats, poultry and gardens. The remaining acreage is mowed and seeded as pollinator fields, part of a slow process of creating topsoil and reviving the land to the point where it can function as pasture for
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future herds of sheep and cattle. This past year, they planted a variety of berry and nut trees and an orchard of local heritage apples, as they plan for a future of apple harvests and cider pressings. “With regenerative farming, you can only build your farming business as fast as the land can progress, which isn’t very fast,” she admits. “This means thinking outside the box about products and income sources.” In starting fresh on their land, she and Carl — both experienced educators — integrated agritourism into the business plan, recommitting themselves to educating and connecting with their community. In 2019, Slow Farm was awarded an AgPrime grant by the University of Mount Olive in a project sponsored by the North Carolina Tobacco Fund Trust Committee. That funding, as well as income generated through T-shirt sales and donations, allowed them to renovate the barn and build visitation areas for the public to interact with the pigs. “Their support made it possible for us to have more people safely enjoy our farm,” says Herrick. Twenty-six workshops were scheduled for this year, covering topics ranging from growing your own mushrooms and greens, to building pollinator hotels, birdhouses and bat boxes, to painting decorative barn quilts based on historical textiles. But the workshop schedule, among other activities on the farm, was thrown into disarray with COVID-19. The pandemic devastated the farm’s income, which is mainly dependent upon the sale of eggs to restaurants, workshops, and the breeding and sale of Kunekunes. “We saw this coming and elected to put the brakes on the workshops and the breeding,” Herrick says, noting that the shifts in markets made them modify their business model. Still, it also gave them time to consider and plan expansion. “We supplied restaurants with fresh eggs, but they’re not buying
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them now, or cutting back. We had a couple of weeks when we thought, ‘Oh, man, what are we going to do with all these eggs?’ When we announced the egg availability on our social media network, it was swoosh — they’re going, going fast!” Herrick says direct sales to consumers have entirely erased the slack in the restaurant sales. Now, egg consumers come to the farm by appointment. “We encourage them to take their time and look around, but not get out of their cars,” says Herrick. “Enjoy a slow drive up the driveway to the egg stand and watch our mini-safari of goats, pigs and poultry in our pastures.” The couple also planted 600 asparagus seedlings, which offers them an additional product for direct sales or restaurant sales in future years. Herrick reassures the workshops will go on, with some shuffling of the schedule, when the time is appropriate. “We’re going to wait until we get the OK, then we’ll most likely do morning workshops to avoid the heat,” she says. The renovated barn, the site of the workshops, can comfortably accommodate each guest working at a separate table, to ensure the appropriate social distancing. “We’re putting an extra focus on helping and maintaining the community’s curiosity and interest in self-sufficiency with workshops that focus on gardening, backyard chicken keeping and the Kunekunes,” she says. Each workshop combines farming with creativity in a way Herrick The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
hopes people will find fun and empowering. “We offer unique handson opportunities to connect with nature, science, and the creative thinking that drives regenerative farming,” she explains. “Those experiences allow visitors to appreciate their power and relationships with farming.” Slow Farm is not open for drop-in visits, although private tours can be arranged. Public farm days are held twice a year. In early November, the farm offers a lively Piggy Pumpkin Palooza, an event that welcomes visitors to retire their Jack-o’-lanterns by chucking them to the pigs. The farm was to be featured on this year’s Sandhills Farm Tour, but the tour was rescheduled to April 24, 2021, due to the coronavirus pandemic. A full schedule of workshop opportunities is listed on the farm’s website: http://www.slowfarmnc. com (classes fill quickly). Slow Farm’s owners pursue their more abundant life with far less monetary compensation. Carl works off-farm, and Herrick, who runs all things “farm,” does freelance design and writing projects as time permits to stabilize the income stream. “Whatever it takes,” she admits. “You get creative when you’re flying without a net.” She yanks the chain saw’s starter and eyes another log. “Farming in red lipstick is not a normal thing, but it makes every day farming fun. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t feel empowered when they’re rocking some red lipstick.” PS Claudia Watson is a contributing writer to PineStraw and The Pilot and can usually be found in a garden. PineStraw
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Memories of a
Devoted
Mother A special family of fox squirrels Story and Photographs by Todd Pusser
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appled sunlight, filtered through a canopy of tall trees, danced across clumps of goldenhued wiregrass. The wind was still, and the scent of yellow jessamine and pine hung heavy in the air. Nearby, a pair of brownheaded nuthatches busily excavated a small cavity in a standing, dead pine snag, their incessant, squeaky toy-like chatter breaking the silence of an otherwise quiet April morning. The air temperature hovered around 70 degrees with zero humidity, and there was not a cloud in the sky. I had been sitting in a small, makeshift blind for nearly two hours, pointing a large telephoto lens, mounted on a tripod, at a natural cavity about 20 feet off the ground in a tupelo tree. The tree stood along a tiny trickle of a creek at the base of a gently sloping hill covered in turkey oak and longleaf pine near the small Moore County town of Eagle Springs. Two days prior, I had watched a mother fox squirrel move her four young pups to the tupelo tree from a large wooden nest box mounted in a pine along the edge of the yard of my childhood home. I had built the nest box, 20 years before, for course credit in my shop class at Pinecrest High School. I had hoped a family of screech owls would take up residence in the box, but was pleasantly surprised when a female fox squirrel chose to raise her family there instead. Fox squirrels are among my favorite animals, and I have been fascinated by them since I was a little kid. I vividly recall standing at our kitchen window when I was just 5 years old, staring out into the backyard at a solid black fox squirrel, with a brilliant white nose, standing on its hind legs grasping a pine cone at the base of a tall longleaf. The squirrel, nearly the size of a house cat, proceeded to shred each and every sharp petal off the cone to get at the tasty seeds inside. It was like watching a scene straight out of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, a popular television show at the
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time. I had never seen such an animal before, and the encounter left an indelible mark on my young mind, cementing a lifelong obsession with the natural world and all its marvels. North America’s largest tree squirrels, fox squirrels come in a variety of colors, ranging from gray to reddish orange to solid black, and every combination in between. Most examples have a white nose and white ears. Fox squirrels are rather uncommon in North Carolina. Though they range from the mountains to the coast, the species seems most abundant in the Sandhills, where longleaf pine trees are prevalent. Tee it up on any of the area golf courses and you will likely see fox squirrels running across the fairways, their long flowing tails — a characteristic that gives the species its common name — bouncing up and down as they disappear. Over the years, I have seen many fox squirrels scampering around the links of Pinehurst Country Club, as well as those at Foxfire, Seven Lakes and Whispering Pines. Though fox squirrels have a broad diet that includes acorns, persimmons and mushrooms, they relish longleaf pine cone seeds. A fox squirrel’s large size gives it a competitive advantage over their smaller cousin, the gray squirrel, allowing the species to easily rip apart the massive longleaf pine cones to get at the nutritious and caloric-rich seeds inside. Back in the blind, my mind was starting to wander and my lower back was aching from sitting so long in one position. Finally, I noticed a white-tipped nose sticking out from the cavity. Before long, a pair of young fox squirrels, one solid black and the other reddish orange, poked their heads out of the hole, soaking up the morning sun. Like youngsters everywhere, they were extremely rambunctious, and I found myself repeatedly laughing out loud at their antics. The pair would scamper all over one another, pushing their paws into The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
each other’s faces and constantly grabbing at the other’s tail. It was the young pups’ mother, a distinct black squirrel with a grizzled gray back, white nose and white ears, who led me to this cavity tree three years prior. That April, she raised four pups in the wooden nest box, and I spent countless hours sitting and watching their behavior. The following spring, like clockwork, she returned to the same nest box at nearly the same time and raised four more pups. During that particular year, the forest was overflowing with an abundance of acorns and pine cones, and I was surprised to see the mother fox squirrel return, yet again, to the nest box in October and raise three more pups. Like mothers everywhere, she was extremely hard-working and diligent with the care of her young. Most days would find her stretched out on top of the nest box, patiently watching the surrounding area, while her pups crawled all over her back. Occasionally she would groom or nurse them out in the open. The raucous alarm calls of crows harassing a nearby hawk would cause the mother squirrel to issue a sharp warning bark and immediately rush her family back inside the safe confines of the nest box. As the pups matured, they would scamper off the nest box, up the trunk of the pine, into nearby tree branches. It was at this point in their life cycle that the mother squirrel would move the pups, one by one, from the nest box in the yard to the natural cavity of the tupelo tree standing by the creek, a journey of nearly 200 yards. When I first observed this behavior, I was intrigued, and did not immediately understand what was happening. It was early April, and I had watched the pups frolic around the nest box for nearly three weeks. One morning, the pups remained inside the box while mother squirrel was out foraging on her own. When she returned, PineStraw
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she climbed up the tree to the top of the nest box and started waving her long black tail rapidly up and down while making a low, throaty, whirring sound with her mouth. Almost immediately, a young squirrel stuck its head out of the box and then climbed up on top to join her. Mother squirrel gently grabbed it by the nape of the neck with her mouth and curled the youngster into a tight ball with her front paws. She then jumped off the box into a nearby pine and quickly scampered down, headfirst, with the young squirrel tightly clamped in her jaws. Once on the ground, she let the youngster go and moved a few feet away, still moving her tail rapidly up and down, and making that same, low, muttering sound. It took some persuasion, but she eventually coaxed the young pup to follow her, and the pair navigated the edge of the yard and quickly disappeared into the woods. She returned a half hour later and repeated the same behavior with the next pup and then the next. With just one pup remaining in the nest box, curiosity got the best of me, and I grabbed a pair of binoculars and waited quietly at the edge of the yard for mother squirrel to return. When she did, I followed at a distance, careful not to disturb her, as she led the last pup down the hill, through dense patches of wire grass, to the cavity in the tupelo tree, where its siblings waited. The long journey on the ground from the nest box to the cavity tree seemed risky, potentially exposing the young to predators like hawks or coyotes, but the mother fox squirrel obviously knew what
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she was doing. She performed the same behavior with each of the four broods I watched her raise over the next three years. I can only assume the nest box became too crowded for the rapidly maturing squirrels, and that the natural cavity in the gum tree provided much needed space for the family to move around and grow. By now, the pair of young squirrels that I had been watching in the tupelo tree climbed out of the cavity onto a nearby branch, where they sat quietly together. Still concealed in the blind, I slowly stretched out my stiff back and quietly adjusted the settings on my camera. As I did, another young squirrel with a mottled gray coat and white nose stuck its head out of the cavity, followed by a fourth, also gray-colored, but with a distinct black face. The last squirrel to emerge from the cavity was the reason I had been patiently sitting and watching for over two hours. That the young pup was alive and healthy was a testament to the resiliency and resourcefulness of the mother squirrel I had come to know so well over the years. The gray pup with the black face was not one of her offspring. Earlier in the spring, when the mother fox squirrel was raising pups in her usual nest box, a second female fox squirrel was occupying another box I had placed in a pine on the opposite side of the 2-acre yard. That female was light gray in color, and had a white belly and pale nose. Her frequent comings and goings led me to believe she also had young of her own. It was the first and still only time I The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
have seen two female fox squirrels simultaneously raising families in the yard. One afternoon, much to my dismay, I found the gray female lying along the shoulder of the road near the yard, a victim of a hit and run with an automobile. Her swollen mammary glands indicated that she was indeed nursing young. I immediately fetched a ladder and climbed up the tree to the nest box she had been using and looked inside. Curled up in a ball, on a bed of pine needles, was a single gray fox squirrel pup with a black face, so young, its eyes had not fully opened. Instead of taking the orphaned pup to a veterinarian or wildlife rehabber, I decided to take it to the nest box of the well-known black squirrel on the opposite side of yard. It was a calculated risk, but I thought that the tiny pup’s best chance of survival would be better with an experienced female of its own species. Climbing the tree, I peered into the nest box, and saw three young pups, all roughly the same size and age as the orphan in my hands, curled up tightly together. As carefully as I could, I placed the pup inside the box where it quickly snuggled up with the others. Descending the tree, I retreated to the far corner of the yard, to watch for the mother squirrel to return, anxious to see if she would adopt the orphan pup. She had been away from the box most of the morning, likely foraging for breakfast. However, there was no need to worry. In no time at all, she returned to the box and readily accepted the orphan as her own, and was soon nursing it along with her own pups. Back at the tupelo tree, I continued to watch the young squirrels for the remainder of the morning and much of the afternoon. Mother squirrel returned about mid-afternoon, and I decided to pack up my gear when the family settled back inside the tree cavity. The events of that day took place over 10 years ago, and it ended up being the last time I saw the mother fox squirrel. The following spring I waited with anticipation for her return to the nest box, but she never appeared. It was the same the following year. On average, female fox squirrels live about 12 years in the wild. Perhaps those years I had watched her raise four different families of baby squirrels were near the end of her life. Perhaps she succumbed to disease or fell victim to a red-tailed hawk. Perhaps she simply found a different spot, another tree cavity, in which to raise a family. After several years of not seeing any fox squirrels at the nest boxes in the yard, just this past spring a different female, solid black and lacking a grizzled gray back, moved into the old nest box. I like to think it was one of the old mother squirrel’s offspring returning home to raise a family of her own. PS Naturalist and photographer Todd Pusser, who grew up in Eagle Springs, is a regular contributor to PineStraw. He works to document the extraordinary diversity of life both near and far. His images can be found at www.ToddPusser.com. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
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STORY OF A HOUSE
Rosewood in Bloom Gatsby-era retreat honors the old, celebrates the new By Deborah Salomon • Photographs by John Gessner
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he probable scenario: By the mid-1920s, Southern Pines rivaled Pinehurst as a winter destination for wealthy Northeastern urbanites. The golfing rich bought “cottages” built by the Tufts family while moneyed equestrians chose Southern Pines. With them came New York society architect Aymar Embury II. With Embury came engineer Louis Lachine. The two collaborated on the Highland Pines Inn. Soon, snowbirds enamored of Southern Pines’ climate and cachet wanted homes here. Embury complied. Lachine, it appears, tapped solo into the lucrative new market. The developer-at-heart bought land in Weymouth and built 10 spec houses. Big ones. Brick ones. However, Lachine was no esthetically-minded architect. Thus the patchwork exterior — irregular brick, stucco, wood, dormers, off-center front door, wrought iron Juliet balcony — of Rosewood, survives as a grand dame on two landscaped acres in the heart of historic Weymouth. The total answers to Tudor Revival, gone rogue.
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Or, as Alice would say, “Curiouser and curiouser.” Now Rosewood — named by first owners Mr. and Mrs. Robert Rose of Binghamton, New York — is in a third, maybe fourth, iteration designed for practicality (an L-shaped kitchen encompassing three distinct areas), with respect for the arts and crafts style (beams, dark woods), furnished respectfully in antiques, as in purchased, and heirlooms, as in inherited. No less could be expected from Dr. Ellie Pack Marlow, an art history/design professional who, on a whim, left her job at a Manhattan auction house, enrolled in med school and now practices interventional radiology, primarily breast cancer procedures. Her husband, Cameron Marlow, is a validation engineer for a Maryland tech company. He ensures computers used to make vaccines (includ-
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ing COVID-19) meet FDA standards. He also cooks, passionately. How this multi-faceted couple stumbled upon Rosewood reads like the first chapter in a happily-ever-after novella. Ellie grew up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, with time spent in New Jersey horse country. Cameron comes from Baltimore. Since he is able to work from home, they lived near Ellie’s medical practice, in Fayetteville. Southern Pines’ equestrian community was a draw; Ellie still rides, and until recently, kept a horse. First they looked at horse farms, but found nothing suitable. Then, driving around Weymouth, Cameron spotted the unusual three-story manse on South Valley Road. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
“I want a house like that!” he exclaimed. Conveniently, Rosewood was for sale. Although the interior needed personalizing, major updates — including most systems — had been completed by previous owners. They purchased it in January 2018, moved into a rental house nearby, and commenced a sometimes bumpy renovation centered around a showplace kitchen, cobbled together from a sunken Carolina room and the smallish existing one. “The kitchen is very important to us — the place we gather and spend time together,” Ellie says, remembering their first Thanksgiving/Christmas when the couple hosted 30. Many were houseguests. Rosewood, at about 5,000 square feet, has seven bedrooms, four full bathrooms, four outdoor seating areas (covered and uncovered) and a grassy yard. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
“To see the family sitting around was just wonderful,” she recalls. This favorite room, because of the merger, has two separate prep areas, a butler’s pantry, a 13-foot white quartzite island/bar seating five, and a unique tin range hood custom-made in Mexico. Its air flow required an engineering feat, which Cameron explains enthusiastically. From the blown-glass lighting fixtures to splash-of-red tabletop appliances and statuesque faucet, every detail illustrates the couple’s attention to . . . detail. “I always wanted to invite local chefs to do a demo here,” Cameron admits. Interior designer Shelley Turner made this happen. “They needed a wet bar-coffee area that flowed into the butler’s pantry, along with a small counter with stools, for breakfast.” Chef Cameron wanted PineStraw
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the island located so he could talk to guests while manning the massive six-burner gas range. No propane here. The Marlows brought natural gas to the neighborhood. Turner won first place in the 2019 Carolinas ASID (American Society of Interior Designers) Excellence Award for Rosewood’s unusual kitchen. After the glowing all-white (except for an old “pie safe” cabinet) kitchen, the dining and living rooms feel clubby, suggesting hunt box, with dark woods and elongated chocolate brown leather sofas flanking (but not facing) a brick wood-burning fireplace with mantelheight bookcases extending in both directions. Two of Ellie’s saddles are positioned along the back of one sofa. A corner table is actually Ellie’s grandmother’s Singer treadle sewing machine. An exquisite inlaid dining room service table, a memoir from growing up in France, is a gift from Cameron’s mother, Monique Marlow, as is a framed Hermes silk scarf covered in hounds. An art deco lily wall sconce over the inlaid table is something Ellie spotted on “American Pickers.” She contacted the seller and bought it. The china cabinet with faceted crystal knobs comes from Ellie’s family. No ancestral portraits, per se, but lots of equine art, some hanging from the original picture rails. Especially precious, a painting of windmills done by Cameron’s Dutch grandmother. The center staircase, also in gleaming stained heart pine, joins a back staircase that connects third-floor servants’ rooms, now offices and guest quarters, to the kitchen. The mudroom floor is laid in small black and white hexagonal tiles characteristic of bygone hotel bathrooms; here the tiles spell out 1926 — Ellie’s way of dating what The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
lies inside. These same tiles are used in a powder room and some bathrooms (with original clawfoot tubs), which have been modernized but not glamorized, which would clash with the era. “Ellie has an incredible eye,” her husband notes. A new gas boiler was installed to service the white iron radiators, which Ellie appreciates for decorative period value. A guest bathroom with a flat wall-mounted radiator won second place for Turner in the ASID category for bathrooms in a historic house. Wall tints in the second and third floor bedrooms (some now offices) are pale dusty greens, grays and sand. “Ellie wanted the space to be airy, calming, timeless,” Turner explains. “She wanted to maintain the integrity of the house.” A pinch of whimsy is allowed, as in the powder room with hundreds of tiny horses and riders against a striped wallpaper. Also calming: a rock-rimmed gurgling pond beside the covered porch, a pleasant place for morning coffee or evening wine. Summation: Everything old is new again, which pleases Ellie. And Cameron got his culinary stage. By any other name Rosewood smells as sweet. A plaque beside the front door announces House of O. Van Pack, Established Jan. 31, 2018. O is for Oscar, a spry 14-year-old poodle mix who has been with Ellie since med school. Inside, scattered amid the antiques, are boxes holding baby equipment. Within a year, rooms furnished in leather and heart pine will be cordoned by gates. Those pristine kitchen cabinets will require safety latches. A babycam already transmits images, while a motorized bassinet rocks to and fro. Because in July, a sunny corner bedroom became a nursery, welcoming this old estate’s new heir: Emerson Cole Marlow. “Now, it’s a living house,” Ellie says. PS PineStraw
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SELLING CIVIL WAR MILITARIA journeysendantiques.com
9/9 Jenna Bush Hager in Conversation Online hosted by The Country Bookshop
9/10 Sponsor A Child Virtual Porch Party Online hosted by The Boys & Girls Club of the Sandhills
9/12 Shrubs & Reductions Online hosted by Make & Muddle
Antiques, Collectibles, Paper Money, US Coins, Furniture, Glassware, Old Toys, Dolls & Trains Paul Brill Home: 910.725.0466 • Cell: 910.638.4542 apbrill@earthlink.net journeysendantiques.com
9/24 Boys & Girls Club of the Sandhills The Cradle Golf Tournament The Cradle at Pinehurst Resort
If you or your organization is interested in hosting an event, online or in person, TicketME Sandhills is here to help. We can assist in online event execution & ticket sales and distribution. If you have any questions or think we can help, please contact us:
TicketME Sandhills 145 W Pennsylvania Ave, Southern Pines 910.693.2516 info@ticketmesandills.com
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A L M A N A C
September n
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By Ashley Wahl
eptember breaks you open with her golden hours, her Signs of Autumn wildflowers, her long, sweet kiss of transience. She is absolute According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, Native Americans radiance. Summer in her loveliest form. And one day, out of had several names for this month’s full moon — the “Corn Moon” nowhere, she cradles your face in her tender hands, gazes into your and “Barley Moon” among them. Other names include “Moon dewy eyes, and tells you that everything will change. When the Plums Are Scarlet” (Lakota Sioux), “Moon When the September is the earliest fall leaves — yellow and burnt orange — Deer Paw the Earth” (Omaha), and “Moon When the Calves dotting the trees like a Tibetan prayer flag strung across a verdant Grow Hair” (Sioux). Poetic, don’t you think? Whatever you’d like landscape. She’s the electric hum of cicadas, the pink glow of muhly to call it — imagine the names you might contrive — this month’s grass in sunlight, blueberries on creeping crimson vines. full moon will rise in the wee hours of Sept. 2, when the swallows September is bewildering. Summer and autumn at once. She swirl as one, when the leaves begin to turn, when the apples are slows you down, asks you to savor what is right here, right now — ripe for the picking. treasures untold. Speaking of apples, Johnny Appleseed Day is celebrated Look and see. this month — on Saturday, Sept. 26. Born John Chapman Pear trees heavy with yellow fruit. (1774–1845), this American nurseryman and missionary was the Swamp sunflowers. living legend known for introducing apple trees to the Midwest Monarch butterflies. and northern parts of present-day West Virginia. Among the Eddies of tree swallows. colorful stories collected about this gospel-preaching plantsman, Here today, gone tomorrow. But such is Chapman was said to have had a pet wolf who began following the nature of September. Your face is in her him after he healed its injured leg. And while that wasn’t a hands now, and she asks you to watch closely. mush pot on his head, he did wear a tin cap used for cookYou look up to the trees, notice the green and ing during his travels. Another fun fact: Chapman’s yellow leaves wave hello and goodbye as the first trees grew tart apples believed to have been used for breeze of autumn passes through them. Just like alcoholic cider, as the fruit itself was practically that, summer is drifting beyond the veil, a unpalatable. In Michael Pollan’s book The Botany transition that renders you both dizzy of Desire, the author dubs Chapman a “modern-day and tender. Dionysus.” Bet they didn’t tell you that in grade school. September invites you inward. You aren’t looking for a sign per se, but you I meant to do my work today — are open to one. A simple affirmation that all is as it should be; that you are where you should be, right here, But a brown bird sang in the apple tree, right now. And a butterfly flitted across the field, It will take you by surprise. And all the leaves were calling me. Perhaps you will be on a walk. The path will be familiar, but today, on the stretch of trail that leads to the picnic bench in the woods, you — Richard Le Gallienne will notice an arrangement of goldenrod and late summer flowers in a vase on the center of the table, the sun filtering through in such a What You Sow way that the flowers glow. There is no one else around. You take a As winter squash and late summer seat at the bench, and in this moment, crops spill from the September garden, all is well. plant mustard, radish, turnip, onion Everything will change, you and pansies galore. PS think, but life is as it should be. Autumn is a second spring when Such is the nature of life every leaf is a flower. — Albert Camus and September. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
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Fall
HOME MAKEOVER Find inspiration for your next home makeover project in the following pages. Whether you’re looking to beautify the inside of your home or add a touch of luxury to your outdoor living, PineStraw’s portfolio of resources will help you enjoy the place you call home.
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AFFORDABLE, LUXURY APPLIANCES PAIRED WITH A CENTURY OF INNOVATION Kees Appliance now offers the KitchenAid Smart Oven, a modern masterpiece that can grill year-round, bake on a stone that preheats in half the time, and can be controlled by a tablet or smartphone. Visit Kees Appliance to learn more about the innovative oven a century in the making.
APPLIANCE CENTER
104 East Main Street | Downtown Aberdeen | 910.944.8887 | www.keesappliance.com
TAKING COMFORT TO THE NEXT LEVEL
2296 Suite C NC HWY 5, Aberdeen, NC 28315 | (910) 695-4328
QUALITY • DEDICATION DURABILITY
Hatchet Brewing Company’s beautiful bar was born in our shop. Photo by Maurice Masdeu
Local Custom Builds, Wood + Metal
133 E. New Hampshire Ave. Southern Pines, NC | 315.286.8228
TRANSFORM YOUR HOME Our windows and doors reduce heating and cooling costs, eliminate drafts, improve comfort and security, and provide a quieter home environment. We’ll work closely with you to design a plan that best meets your needs.
111 N Bennett St, Southern Pines, NC 28387 | 910.725.0446 | windowanddoorspecialties.com
Kitchen • Bath • Interior Design • Custom Closets • Hardwood • Tile • Carpet • Vinyl • Window Coverings 225 W Morganton Rd ste b, Southern Pines, NC 28387 | 910.246.8046 | totalhouseandflooring.com
ENSURE THE LONGEVITY OF YOUR ASPHALT WITH PROFESSIONAL MAINTENANCE & SEAL COATING COMMERCIAL ASPHALT MAINTENANCE Business parking lots are high traffic areas, and it is the job of the lot owner to ensure it is kept safe, clean and looking its best for customers. Pro Contracting Services can help maintain the pavement, lines and overall quality by providing the best business parking lot maintenance in NC.
SEAL COATING
Pavement surfaces will wear due to time and weather, and by sealing the surface, we can restore its original color, protect it against everyday elements, and extend the service life of the pavement at a fraction of the cost to replace it. Sealcoating, whether residential or for HOA’s, is one of the most effective methods for ensuring the longevity of your asphalt. Once applied, the sealcoat serves as a protective barrier, preventing moisture from penetrating the asphalt and causing cracking and deterioration, which can ultimately lead to a crumbling asphalt surface and potholes. The sealcoat also improves the overall resilience and durability of the asphalt, in addition to creating a clean, fresh, uniform surface that improves the aesthetics of the roadway, driveway, parking lot or walkway.
Call us today to schedule your asphalt maintenance or seal coating before the weather turns too cold. We will be glad to answer any questions you have! 910-944-0950 | prideonthejob.com
SHADE WITH ELEGANCE! There is no better way to add shade to your outdoor space than through a beautiful garden structure such as a pavilion, gazebo or pergola! Our structures are handcrafted in Lancaster County PA with lots of custom options to choose from!
Call us today and let us help you add value to your space! 225 W Morganton Rd | 910.725.0394 | www.greyfox-outdoor.com
TAKE A WALK IN HIGH COTTON FOR AUTHENTIC LUXURY ITEMS FOR LESS
910.483.4296 | 2800 Suite 4 Raeford Rd. Fayetteville, NC | highcottonconsignment.com
SOLID WOOD CABINET REFACING & CUSTOM CABINETRY
Let us create your new dream kitchen in less than a week with our premium 1/4” Solid Wood Cabinet Refacing. Saves time and hassle, and saves up to half the cost of custom cabinet replacement.
Limited Time Pandemic Bonus Offer Up to a $1,000 discount PLUS we’ll pay your sales tax. Please call for details. Offer code PSHM2009. Free in-home or virtual consultation | woodreface.com 910-255-0090
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Arts Entertainment C A L E N DA R
Cocktail Class
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Civil War Round Table
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Although conscientious effort is made to provide accurate and up-to-date information, all events are subject to change and errors can occur! Please call to verify times, costs, status and location before planning or attending an event.
Bookshop hours will be Monday - Friday from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. until further notice. Donated books cannot be accepted. The Given Book Shop, 95 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 585-4820.
JOY OF ART STUDIO. Joy of Art Studio is offering after school create with Joy, home school art, history, and fashion illustration, Saturday Paint with Joy, Anime and techniques, Abstract Art and Surface Design for Women, and private lessons. You can also book small art groups and birthday parties. Classes are held at Joy of Art Studio, 139 E. Pennsylvania Ave., Suite B, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 528-7283 or www.joyof-art.com or www.facebook.com/ Joyscreativespace/.
GIVEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY. Given Memorial Library is taking “to-go orders” by phone or email. Go to the online catalog at www.giventufts.com and under the Library drop-down menu select Catalog. Check for availability and then call (910) 295-6022 or email info@giventufts.com for book requests. Staff will fill the requests and contact you with instructions when requests are ready for pick-up. There will be no entry to the library building until further notice. All library programs and events are on hold. Given Memorial Library, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst.
GIVEN BOOK SHOP. The Given Book Shop is taking “to-go orders.” A book request form can be found at www.giventufts.org/book-request-form/. There is no admittance to the store except for pickup.
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LIBRARY READING PACKETS. Given Memorial Library has new reading packets available that include craft supplies and
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activity sheets. While there is no entry to the library building, pickup for packets can be done Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. at Given Memorial Library, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-6022 or info@giventufts.com. TAKE AND MAKE BAG. Kids in grades K-5 are invited to pickup a Take-and-Make Bag featuring projects, experiments and crafts. These bags will feature all the materials and instructions for activities based on science, technology, engineering, art and math. New bags are available on Wednesdays on a first-come, first-served basis. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net. LITTLE READERS. Little Clips for Little Readers features fun rhymes, songs and literacy tips for children ages birth to 5 and their parents and caregivers. Look for these videos posted weekly on SPPL’s Facebook The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
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and YouTube channel. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net. MOORE ART SHARE. The Arts Council of Moore County and Given Memorial Library invite citizens of all ages to share their art with the community by submitting them to an online publication. Submissions can include visual arts, music, theater, short stories, videos, photography, recipes and more. Info: (910) 692-2787 or www.mooreart.org. WEYMOUTH CENTER. Visit www. weymouthcenter.org for tentatively scheduled event information. All events are dependent upon directives of the governor’s office. Friday, September 4 OPENING RECEPTION. 5 - 7 p.m. Join the Sandhills Photography Club and Artists League of the Sandhills for the opening of “Travels Near and Far.” The show will feature photographs and artwork depicting travel from anywhere in the world. The exhibit will be on display through September 24. Artists League of the Sandhills, 129 Exchange St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-3979 or www. artistleague.org. Sunday, September 6 WRITING GROUP. 3 p.m. Interested in creating fiction, nonfiction, poetry or comics? Connect with other writers and artists, chat about your craft and get feedback on your work. All levels are welcome. The session will meet via Zoom. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. To join email: lholden@ sppl.net. Tuesday, September 8 TECH TUESDAY. Learn more about managing your library account through the online catalog with a video showing you how on the library’s Facebook page. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
Wednesday, September 9 BOOK SIGNING. 6 p.m. Join Today Show co-anchor Jenna Bush Hager, the daughter of George W. and Laura Bush, and acclaimed historian Jon Meacham at a book signing for Hager's new book, Everything Beautiful in Its Time, sharing the moving stories of her beloved grandparents, George H.W. and Barbara Bush. For information go to ticketmesandhills.com. Thursday, September 10 DEDICATION DAY. Stop by the library anytime to celebrate the library’s 25th Dedication Day. The first 50 people can enter a raffle to win a small book-themed basket of goodies and grab a cupcake to go. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.
VIRTUAL DISCUSSION. 5:30 p.m. The Southern Pines Public Library will host “The New Normal,” a virtual discussion with local business leaders focused on how they have adapted to the COVID-19 crisis. The event will take place on Zoom. To register, email lib@sppl.net or visit their Facebook page. VIRTUAL PORCH PARTY. 6 - 8 p.m. The Boys and Girls Club of the Sandhills is having a virtual Porch Party to raise awareness for families in need of financial assistance. For information and tickets visit www.ticketmesandhills.com. WIT & WHIMSY. 6:30 - 9 p.m. The Uprising Theatre Company/ Shakespeare in the Pines invites you to join us for a fanciful fundraiser. There will be food, wine, beer, silent and live auctions and live music. Proceeds go toward ensuring free admission at the fourth annual Shakespeare in the Pines Festival. Fair Barn, 200 Beulah Hill Road S., Pinehurst. Info and tickets: www.ticketmesandhills.com. Friday, September 11 LIVE CONCERT. 7 - 8:30 p.m. Darin and Brooke Aldridge: Live on the Green. This is an outdoor event and masks will be required. BPAC’s McNeill-Woodward
Green, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info and tickets: www.ticketmesandhills.com. Saturday, September 12 COCKTAIL CLASS. 4 - 5 p.m. Join Make & Muddle for a virtual cocktail class as they take you through the exciting and historic process of shrubs and reductions. Tickets are available for purchase at www. ticketmesandhills.com. Monday, September 14 CLIMATE CHANGE FORUM. 6 - 7:15 p.m. The Climate Crisis Working Group of Moore County invites you to a virtual climate change forum. Hear state and federal candidates express their views on climate change issues critical to central North Carolina. Free and open to the public. For more information and to register, email ccwgmoore@gmail.com. Wednesday, September 16 WEDNESDAYS AT WEYMOUTH. 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. Enjoy a Farm to Table boxed dinner from Ashten's available for pickup or for picnic. The dinner includes grilled chicken, grilled peaches, two side salads and corn bread. Cost is $20 for Weymouth members and $30 for nonmembers. To reserve your dinner, call (910) 692-6261 or go to www.weymouthcenter. org or www.ticketmesandhills.com. Thursday, September 17 CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE. 6:30 p.m. The guest speaker will be Jim Morgan with a presentation on “Southern Unionism.” Meeting starts at 7 p.m. Open to the public. This date is tentative pending COVID-19 restrictions. Please call or email to confirm. Civic Club, corner of Pennsylvania and Ashe Street, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 246-0452 or mafarina@ aol.com. Monday, September 21 CLIMATE CHANGE FORUM. 6 - 7:15 p.m. The Climate Crisis Working Group of Moore County invites you to a virtual climate change forum. Hear state and federal candidates express their views on climate change issues critical to central North Carolina. Free and open to the pubPineStraw
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lic. For more information and to register, email ccwgmoore@gmail.com. Tuesday, September 22 NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION DAY. Stop by the library to pick up a voter registration form and check out informational displays. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.
TECH TUESDAY. See a tutorial about registering for a library card online with a video showing you how on the library’s Facebook page. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net. Saturday, September 26 LIVE CONCERT. 7:30 - 10 p.m. The Contenders perform. BPAC’s McNeillWoodward Green, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info and tickets: www.ticketmesandhills.com. Tuesday, September 29 PAGE TURNERS. 10:30 a.m. Southern Pines Public Library’s newest book club will meet via Zoom. The book for September is The Broken Girls by Simone St. James. Can’t make the live meeting? Head over to the SPPL Page Turners Facebook page to post your thoughts and interact with group members. Info: (910) 692-8235 or email lib@sppl.net. WEEKLY EVENTS Mondays MASTER GARDENER HELP LINE. 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. If you have a garden problem, a garden pest, a question, or if you want help deciding on plant choices, call the Moore County Agriculture Cooperative Extension Office. Knowledgeable Master Gardener Volunteers will research the answers for you. The help line is available Monday through Friday and goes through Oct. 31. Walk-in consultations are available during the same hours at the Agricultural Center, 707 Pinehurst Ave., Carthage. Info: (910) 947-3188
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Wednesdays FARMERS MARKET. 3 - 6 p.m. The Farmers Market in Pinehurst is back with a great variety of farmers and produce including strawberries, asparagus, lettuce, spring onions, tomatoes, grass-fed beef, goat cheese, flowers and more. Village Green, Pinehurst. Thursdays FARM TO TABLE. Join Sandhills Farm to Table Co-op by ordering a subscription of local produce to support our local farmers. Info: (910) 722-1623 or www.sandhillsfarm2table.com. Fridays MOVIES ON THE SQUARE. Come enjoy a movie on the Sunrise Square. Titles to be announced. Call (910) 692-3611 or visit www.sunrisetheater.com for more information on movie titles and showings. Saturdays FARMERS MARKET. 8 a.m. - 12 p.m. The Southern Pines Farmers Market has a variety of fresh produce, baked goods and more. Downtown Southern Pines.
PINEHURST FARMERS MARKET. 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. The Farmers Market in Pinehurst is back with a great variety of farmers and spring produce including strawberries, asparagus, lettuce, spring onions, tomatoes, grass fed beef, goat cheese, flowers and more. Village Green, Pinehurst. MOVIES ON THE SQUARE. Come enjoy a movie on the Sunrise Square. Titles to be announced. Call (910) 692-3611 or visit www.sunrisetheater.com for more information on movie titles and showings. Sundays MOVIES ON THE SQUARE. Come enjoy a movie on the Sunrise Square. Titles to be announced. Call (910) 692-3611 or visit www.sunrisetheater.com for more information on movie titles and showings. PS
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SOUTHWORDS
Relevance Is Relative
Put that in your pipe and smoke it
If nothing else, these times
have taught us that every 15 minutes everything changes: statistics, rules of (social) engagement, open restaurants. Staying relevant has gotten harder than ever. But I try. I do (is “do” the relevant verb?).
Venmo and Snapchat and Twitter. I was an early-adopter of email back in the dinosaur ages of dial-up. Facebook isn't relevant anymore, ICYMI. I try to keep up with acronyms. LOL and OMG are way, way passé, ICYMI. They’ve been demoted to crossword puzzle clues. I admit to being less than a pop culture maven — I tried Game of Thrones, I really did, but there were just So. Many. Bad. Guys. But the degree of my deficit really hit home in a recent New Yorker cartoon by Roz Chast. She’d drawn a character whose dreams were compartmentalized and labeled with words like “existential threats,” “angst,” “unspecified anxiety,” and “fantods.” Fantods? What the heck are fantods? Some New Yorker-y thing, I comforted myself, an acronym for uber-cool Manhattanites. But no, fantod is right there in Merriam-Webster: a state of extreme nervousness or restlessness. And just like that, my vocabulary relevance has been downgraded. It’s hardly the first time my relevance has come into question. When my daughter looked at my country songs playlist, she rolled her eyes. “What?” I asked. “The Dixie Chicks’ Wide Open Spaces,” she said with a sniff. “So predictable.” Well, we all know how that turned out. The Dixie Chicks don’t even have a relevant name anymore. A few years back I went to a performance of Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer-prize winning play Our Town. Along with the cast biographies, the playbill listed a helpful glossary of terms used in the production. “To string some beans,” was one entry. “A process by which green beans are stripped of their ‘string’ seam by breaking the tip, usually with a fingernail, and pulling it down the length of the bean.” Hello? The audience needs a definition for stringing beans?
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“Catch 40 winks” read another. “To take a short nap.” I mean, as if the play were in Russian. Who knew the expression “40 winks” was no longer relevant? Though to be honest, at our house we refer to 40 winks as a drop-down. I began to understand why as teenagers, my children looked strangely at me when I’d end an argument with the phrase my father always used: “Put that in your pipe and smoke it.” To their credit, and relevance, most things they associated with pipes are illegal substances. The relevance of graphic novels escapes me too. Comics belong in a twirling rack and portray Richie Rich in a 14-karat gold swimming pool, or Archie and Veronica at Riverdale High, not in an adultreading genre. (Although I do vaguely recall reading a comic-book version of A Tale of Two Cities at some low point in summer-reading requirements . . . ). But I’m glad to see Bless Your Heart lose all relevance. Anyone possessed of authentic Southern snark knew about Bless Your Heart long, long before it appeared on cocktail napkins. You’ll have to find another way to criticize and patronize what flies so low it’s undetectable by radar. No one’s required to stay relevant, of course. My husband gets along just fine without knowing who Pharrell is. When I try to tell him what “meta” means, he nods and goes right back to The Wall Street Journal. The thing is, not being relevant is the same thing as not being at a party. No one notices if you’re not at a party. Think about it. They only notice if you are. You know what else doesn’t care about relevance? College essay prompts. Year in, year out, the prompts are the same boring choices. What changes are the relevant words you have to use: Cooperation. Collaboration. Global. They're the vocab biggies right now. But who am I to talk? If I had my way, we’d all speak in old English. “Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote/The droghte of March hath perced to the roote . . . ” Why else was I made to memorize the opening lines of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales if not as a safeguard against the fearsome state of complete and utter irrelevance? PS Susan S. Kelly is a blithe spirit, author of several novels, and a proud grandmother. The Art & Soul of the Sandhills
ILLUSTRATION BY MERIDITH MARTENS
By Susan S. Kelly
“Gratitude is an art of painting adversity into a lovely picture” -Kak Sri
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